Kingswood Warren to be axed
Decades of history look set to end with the closure of the BBC's Research Department in Kingswood Warren.
Although the shut-down of the Surrey centre had been flagged for almost a year, members had hoped that intensive lobbying of the BBC Governors might win a reprieve.
Instead, BBC Chair Michael Grade notified BECTU on 28 November that the plan to move out of Kingswood Warren had been approved by the Board.
The closure is part of a larger plan to move most of the BBC's remaining in-house Technology activities to Manchester, with a rump of Research and Development based in West London close to programme-makers.
In total 137 staff will be based in Manchester, with the first group due to move some time in 2006. Fewer than a dozen Kingswood staff are set to move north at present.
Most staff currently in Research Department are earmarked to join the 98-strong London-based team responsible for applied research, including digital switchover.
However, BECTU has argued that they cannot be forced to transfer to London, and the union was expecting a high interest in voluntary redundancy when a trawl closed on 9 December.
Even if Kingswood staff were willing to move to London, there are roughly 30 fewer posts there than currently exist in Research Department, although the contining attrition of staff leaving to avoid the move is reducing this gap every week.
In a welcome move, management announced that the planned outsourcing of maintenance staff at Kingswood would be shelved for the time-being, although there was still uncertainty over how many would be retained in-house.