Planning permission sought for quarantine tents at Army training camp
Quarantine tents are being installed at an army training camp in Staffordshire to provide isolation space for up to 150 people.
The Secretary of State for Defence is seeking planning permission from Stafford Borough Council for five tents at Swynnerton Training Camp, as well as change of use of the land to allow overnight accommodation.
The tents are required from August 31 for at least six months, a planning statement submitted to the authority said. But they could be needed for up to 18 months.
The statement said: “The quarantine facility is required to isolate military personnel in advance of deployment and upon return from operations as a consequence of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
“To accommodate this need, the site requires the establishment of 150 additional temporary bed spaces for military personnel along with enough ablutions to support the additional head count. Whilst there is an immediate need for this facility over the next six months, the quarantine facility could be required on site for as long as 18 months.
“There will be a requirement for a total of five temporary tents on site with each housing 30 cubicle single bed spaces. Each tent will measure 20m x 25m.
“The proposed tents are designed to be temporary in nature and easily removed from site when required and therefore this application does not involve the erection of buildings – rather it seeks temporary planning permission for the siting of quarantine tents and change of use of the land.
The Swynnerton site at Cold Meece, near Yarnfield, is more than 100 metres from the nearest houses. A munitions factory was located there during the Second World War and in the following few years, but the site has more recently been used as a training camp for the British Army.
The tents are being installed in the grounds of existing camp buildings and they will be in keeping with the single storey scale of other structures on the site, the statement said.
It added: “Personnel required to quarantine at this location will be transported to and from the site by coach from other military bases. Due to the need to quarantine before and after deployment there will be negligible additional associated vehicle movements whilst personnel are on site in the quarantine tents.”
