Security fears over plans to move Porton Down research facilities
to Essex, warns Unite
19 July 2010
Security fears over a proposed transfer of facilities at Porton
Down – the UK centre for research into countering bio-terrorism and
deadly diseases – to Essex have been raised by Unite.
Unite, the largest union in the country, said that the £85
million proposal to transfer most of the work from Wiltshire to the
GSK New Frontiers Science Park in Harlow, Essex could mean a
lessening of the current ‘high level of security’.
The Health Protection Agency (HPA) has submitted an outline
business case for the Essex move to the Department of Health on the
grounds that the running costs - due to the age of the main science
buildings at the Centre for Emergency Preparedness and Response -
are extremely high.
A Unite briefing paper said: ”The GSK site is bounded by a main
road which staff will have to cross from the car park and high
containment laboratories will be relatively close to the perimeter.
It has a range of business units surrounding the site on two
sides.
”The introduction of dangerous pathogens in an urban
environment, and the development of the supporting biological
investigation services may attract local community concerns and
possible wider disruptive measures.“
Unite is also concerned that the move from Porton Down will
break-up decades of expertise and skills that the staff have built
up
The Unite briefing said: ”Staff retention at the GSK site may
also be a problem due to a greater range of alternative employers
in the area. A significant risk is that the HPA will spend
considerable time and money training staff, who then choose to
leave a public sector organisation for better-paid employment
within the private sector.
”Loss of key staff could create significant problems in a
situation where the agency is involved in supporting a major UK
emergency.”
Unite national officer for health, David Fleming, said: ”Unite
has serious concerns about the security of the Harlow site, if this
move goes ahead. The Porton Down site, near Salisbury, is very
remote and has a high-level of security. There must be a question
mark over having such a centre right next to a main road in
Harlow.
”We are also concerned that such a move could lead to the
break-up of a world-class scientific and research team who may be
attracted by the higher salaries in the Cambridge – M11 – London
corridor.”
Unite also said that £10 million of public money was spent on
planning state of the art facilities at Porton Down - and this has
now been abandoned in favour of the compromise of refurbishing the
chemistry laboratories.
David Fleming added: ”The proposal is hastily constructed and
flawed and needs to be rethought. There is a great risk that the
GSK Harlow option will not provide the facilities required and is
not accurately costed.“
ENDS
Notes to news editors:
- The short term (to 2025) plan is not to close the Porton site.
The current expectation is that all CEPR activities would move to
Harlow with the exception of manufacturing (about 120 staff) and
the required facility services.
- Porton Down is a government and military science park, near
Salisbury, Wiltshire and was originally set up in 1916 in response
to the German use of chemical warfare in the First World War.
-
Unite briefing.
For further information, please ring: David Fleming, national
officer, health on 07798 531013 or Shaun Noble, communications
officer, on 020 7420 8951 or 07768 693 940.
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