Re Contract

17 March 2011

Gloucestershire's £40m fire station project to go ahead

Financial close has now been reached for Blue 3, a consortium comprising Kier, Reliance and Calderpeel Carden Croft as co-investors, to design, build and maintain four new community fire stations and a life skills centre in Gloucestershire on behalf of Gloucestershire County Council. The government is providing £40m funding under the private finance initiative and Blue 3's contract will run for 25 years. Kier is the majority investor with a 70 per cent stake.

The fire stations will be built by Kier and handed over between January and June 2012. Stations at Churchdown and Tuffley will replace the current Gloucester fire station and in Cheltenham, a new station will be built at Uckington while the current station in Keynsham Road will be demolished and rebuilt. These new fire stations have been located to improve average response times to emergency calls.

The innovative life skills centre will be based at Tuffley and will be used to provide training on safety issues to community groups within the county as well as teaching young people about social responsibility and respect.

Kier Group chief executive Paul Sheffield commented: "We look forward to working in partnership with Gloucestershire County Council and Gloucestershire Fire & Rescue Service. Against the backdrop of a challenging economic environment for public and private sector alike, we will deliver key strategic assets that are highly sustainable, promote inward investment in the region through our local business and are significantly within the Council's affordability threshold. This provides an excellent opportunity for us to demonstrate how effective public/private partnerships can deliver high quality, value for money solutions."

Ends

Contacts:

Haydn Mursell

Group Finance Director

Kier Group 01767 640111

Faeth Birch

Conor McClafferty

Finsbury 020 7251 3801