Bletchley Park Could Host Institute Of Technology

Bletchley Park could house a new high-tech Institute of Technology (IoT) for 1,100 students in the historical code breaking heritage site.

Plans have been filed for a £26 million redevelopment of listed buildings at the site, have been officially lodged with Milton Keynes Council planning department.

In late 2016 it had been mooted that Bletchley Park could become host a training college that will teach the next generation of youngsters much needed cybersecurity skills. At the time it was announced that a training college would be housed within renovated historic buildings at the site, to provide “world-class facilities, on the country’s most iconic site for UK cryptography and codebreaking”.

Hut 6 in 2004

Block D

Institutes of Technology are a government drive to create vocational alternative to universities that will provide young people with higher technical education with a focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects.

The South Central IoT will be one of 12 IoTs in the UK, reported the MKCitizen newspaper.

It is reported that the plans would see the transformation of the Block D buildings into spaces for seminars, events, student support and even a cafe and office space.

At the moment, Block D building is a single-storey flat roof structure, which has a long central corridor with 13 wings and a plant room to one end.

But the building is currently derelict and has been victim to break-ins and arson, and there are also other problems as well with possible structural issues.

Block D was famously used by the Bletchley Park codebreakers to crack German Enigma codes.

“The project is an amazing achievement for Milton Keynes College and of enormous significance for Bletchley and Milton Keynes,” Anna McTaggart and Chris Cheuk, of GSS architecture, were quoted by the MK Citizen newspaper as saying in one of numerous technical submissions to the local council.

“The Block D IoT will provide much needed education facilities, enabling people in Milton Keynes and the surrounding area to aspire to higher levels of attainment, in providing skillsets, benefiting local employers and creating opportunities for entrepreneurs to start up new business initiatives,” the architects reportedly said.

And it is not just Block D at Bletchley Park that would be redeveloped.

The plans also propose that the nearby Bletchley Train Station would have its single story car parking deck extended to “ensure that sufficient car parking is provided for the site.”

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