Sighs of relief over Telford defence hub news

Employees were called into a meeting on Thursday to be told the news yesterday that American consortium Leidos had been chosen by the Ministry of Defence as the preferred bidder to run the hub and wanted it at Donnington.

Contracts are still to be signed at the end of March. The uncertainty had rumbled on for about four years and at one point Donnington was widely thought to be doomed in its battle with north Oxfordshire town Bicester for the defence contract.

Then, when it looked as if the decision was to be made at the end of last year, the announcement was delayed several times – causing more anxiety for the workers.

But now it looks as if 1,000 jobs have been saved and up to 700 could be created in a deal which could be worth £60 million to Telford.

Geoff Pitts, 55, has worked at the Donnington site for 39 years. He was among workers who met Telford & Wrekin Council leader Kuldip Sahota to discus the future of the site and to celebrate the awarding of the contract.

He said: "I think it is a good thing for Telford, good for the community and good that we have managed to retain the work here in the Telford area.

"The project has been going on for about four years been a lot of to-ing and fro-ing waiting for this decision recently – and there has been quite serious competition with different consortiums – so we just didn't know."

"It is good that we have won the bid and good that everything will be contained on one site and good we can supply the armed forces and supply them for the next 10 to 15 years with a modern factory."

"There was a lot of anticipation about who it would be and there is still a lot of questions about the transfer of staff from there to here, the contract has not been signed yet so a bit of apprehension but I am trying to convince people it will be good news at the end of the day.

He added: "It is quite a close-knit community. A lot of people in Donnington work here or have worked here, or their relatives work here. It has been a big employer over the years and now it will still be here."

Craig Sumnall, 42, who works in tech services, says he was on annual leave yesterday and received a call from his workmate Phil Blenkarn, 44.

Mr Blenkarn said: "We got told about 10.30am on Thursday. It had been expected from seeing it from the union side of things, we were led to believe it would go our way and now we know. It is great for Donnington and the council has helped a lot. It makes sense to have it here, we have the infrastructure, the rail links, the roads. It is central for everywhere.

"We have a lot of workers here and a lot of skills that companies would require."

Mr Sumnall added: "A lot of families have gone through this. We have people whose dad worked here, grandad worked here. I will have family members working here if it is here for another 30 or 40 years."

"It is only over the last three years it started going towards Donnington, for a long time it looked as if Bicester would get it.

He added: "I think still until it is signed, sealed and fully delivered before people can make their decisions but we want our future to be here. It has been cautious welcome, we had been worried for a while but we hope we will be better off from this."

Carl France, 44, who works in the hazard building, said: "I am overwhelmed, it is very pleasing that the future for Donnington is secure. We can now make plans for our futures.

"There was a sigh of relief around the place. It will give people a boost small business outside here and the security thing is a big thing."

Chris Cadman, Unite executive council member for the Ministry of Defence, said: "We can see by all the euphoria what a massive thing it is for the area. I have been involved in this right from the start and it had not sunk in until I really thought about the numbers.

"For us as a union this is about jobs for our members – but for that to snowball into being a massive thing, it will be from building the new centre to the local economy, jobs in the area and the knock-on effect to the supply chain.

"So when people are looking at 700 new jobs, it may well be more than that."