Derby RTC up for sale?

[hstconnor]

According to railnews, the government have put the RTC up for sale, for £16 million.
What is going to be the future for the RTC?
And also, what is your views on this?



If your looking for more information, here is the article:
http://www.railnews.co.uk/news/general/2010/10/14-dismay-in-derby-as-rtc.html

 

[Teaboy1]

My view is that we are a nation of smart & skilled engineers but saddled with a **** poor managers/inept politicians who think we can, as a country, get by in the world selling each other hamburgers, life insurance & accident claims victims 100% payout...etc.
What has happened in similar cases.........becomes a retail park selling Toys-R-Us, £land, etc. My I draw your attention to CA Parsons (Newcastle), GEC (Rugby), Staveley Cast Pipes (Derby), etc etc...the list is endless.
It will be bought by foreign competitors (Siemens, Alstom, Hitachi, et al).........and closed within 2-3 years as not viable. All the skills will be lost and all the work and knowledge will be thrown away to benefit Berlin, Paris, Seoul, etc.
We are in the midst of world economic warfare where the looser's simply slide down the GDP scale of things and become 3rd world status within a few generations. Next watch ForgeMasters (Sheffield fail).....in S Korea there is a new forge 15kT installed & working there, result...they win, simple!!
All that will happen is foreign companies will benefit from our demise........stop swimming & you (we/all) sink / drown !!
It 'aint rocket science....(to mix my metaphors)

 

[Wyvern]

The Railway Technical Centre is already occupied by a range of private railway engineering companies from Serco and Delta Rail to a number of small start-ups.

Only the property belongs to the BRB and I'm not even sure how that works. Brunel House for instance was built by the Coal Industries Nominees (the miner's pension fund) and leased by British Rail before the words "Private Public Partnership" were invented.

A few years ago there was a plan to develop the RTC as the UK railway engineering centre but it fell through. Maybe some good fairy will come forward and take it on.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

If I understand that correctly then BRB ( Residual ) are the landlord for the businesses there, so this is effectively "freehold for sale - business not affected" ( like you often see on shops in towns )?

 

[Wyvern]

I think so.

I guess the problem will be if there's a new landlord who wants to put up the rent excessively.

I wonder if Pete Waterman would be interested. He did look at the Roundhouse many years ago though it was then out of the question.

 

[hstconnor]

Thank you to those who have currently gave their view on the sale of the RTC.
It will be a real shame to see the RTC to be turned into a retail park, which was meantion by Teaboy1 in his opinion. Also, to see the skills which originated from the RTC. If we all think about, the RTC was the place which led the way into rail research. This is bad news about the RTC been put up for sale, which will lose its facilities.