Black Rock Quarry, Portishead

At Black Rock Quarry, near Portishead, we will be building a new indoor firearms training facility serving the police forces of Avon and Somerset, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire.

This will provide a state-of the-art firearms training hub including self-contained and enclosed indoor firing ranges plus a tactics enclosure together with associated parking and landscaping.

It will consist of self-contained and enclosed indoor firing ranges - one 50m and one 100m (8 lanes per range) both with drive-on and drive-through capability, together with staff offices, training facilities, classrooms and other related services. A means of entry ‘tactics house’ will also be provided within its own enclosure which will also provide facilities for 'entry' and 'rope' training.

The buildings are being designed to respect the current environmental considerations of the site as far as possible. The site will house about 20 trainers and support staff who will deliver training to about 300 firearms officers from the three forces. It is proposed that approximately 48 students will be trained at one time.

There may be an opportunity to share this facility with other forces and partners.