Proposals for the future of the Officers’ Mess site at St George’s Barracks in Rutland received a resolution to grant outline consent last month, unlocking this strategic brownfield site to deliver much-need new homes for the county.
The Defence Estate Optimisation (DEO) is a £5.1Bn investment Portfolio of interdependent infrastructure programmes aimed at delivering a modern and sustainable Estate for our military to live and train on. This is being achieved through construction activity, unit and personnel moves and land release where Defence sites have been identified as surplus to military requirement.
The project to relocate the military working dogs from St. George’s Barracks to Kendrew Barracks will see the site sold for redevelopment, providing opportunities and King’s Foundation benefits to the local community. The significant and sensitive proposals for the Officers’ Mess bring forward an initial 85 new homes, a new village green, new commercial space, pedestrian routes and green spaces.
Bringing forward public sector land for development requires exemplary consultation to ensure transparency, openness and community involvement. The King’s Foundation was brought onboard in the early stages to facilitate design workshops to involve the community, drawing together ideas for what development of the site could look like. Further community consultation, both in-person and on-line, and dialogue with Rutland County Council helped to develop the plans before the indicative masterplan for the site was submitted to the Council.
