Why Bletchley Park is at war again

11 Mar 2014

Why Bletchley Park is at war again
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Conflict between the bodies responsible for the protection of the former
Second World War code-breaking HQ has broken out into the open

The Bletchley Park code-breakers’ penetration of the innermost workings of the
Nazi high command is believed by some historians to have shortened the war by
two years.

By Neil Tweedie

Extreme secrecy ensured that those working at Bletchley Park during the Second
World War had little to fear from the Germans. The Luftwaffe crew who
jettisoned their bombs over the code-breaking centre while returning from a
raid during the night of November 20 1940 were oblivious of the priceless
target they had so narrowly missed. That was the only time Bletchley was
seriously threatened by enemy action. When destruction eventually loomed, it
came from a far more dangerous quarter: the housing developers of south-east
England...../snip/

Today, all that has changed. In June, a rejuvenated Bletchley is due to open
to the public; £8 million of investment, including a £5 million donation from
the Heritage Lottery Fund, is being used to create a new visitor centre and
restore the huts that produced the Ultra decrypts, the crown jewels of wartime
intelligence.

The opening is intended to coincide with the 70th anniversary of D-Day, June 6
1944, the success of which was owed in no small part to Bletchley. The
code-breakers’ penetration of the innermost workings of the Nazi high command
is believed by some historians to have shortened the war by two
years..../snip/

....Yet, even as its renaissance beckons, Bletchley still labours under a
cloud. A long-running dispute between the trust and its tenants threatens to
delay the refurbishment and dampen the relaunch. There is a considerable
amount of bad blood at Bletchley, with sources in the trust accusing the
opposition of trying to sabotage its bid for Lottery money and obstruct the
revamp.

The trust, which includes on its board Sir John Scarlett, former chief of the
Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, is in turn being criticised for trying to
turn the estate into a “war memorial”, marginalising the scientific innovation
that takes place within its boundaries. The House of Lords is holding a debate
on Bletchley today, intended as a pleasant amble down memory lane for members
involved in its work or history. Noble lords will no doubt be dismayed to
learn of the battle of attrition waged there over the past few years.

There are two tenants on the estate, Bletchley Park Capital Partners ( BPCP ),
which leases the famous mansion and other buildings, and The National Museum
of Computing, home to, among other exhibits, a working replica of Colossus,
the world’s first electronic computer, built to speed up the human
code-breaking operation at Bletchley. BPCP earns its money from sub-letting
units to small businesses, many of them hi-tech. The computer museum, a
charity, relies on donations and receipts from visitors, many of whom are
drawn to the site by the neighbouring code-breaking museum.

Sources within the trust say one man more than any other has been behind
attempts to block its vision for Bletchley. Tim Reynolds is the founder of
Bletchley Park Capital Partners, which in 2005 took out a lease on the
mock-Tudor, mock-Gothic concoction that is the mansion. He is also a
co-founder of Ceravision, a company specialising in energy-efficient
industrial lighting, which is based at Bletchley. Mr Reynolds values
Ceravision at more than £100 million...../snip/

....BPCP’s lease on Bletchley runs out in six years but that doesn’t mean Mr
Reynolds is going away. According to him, the lease must be extended
automatically for another 15 years unless terminated by mutual consent.

“I think they [ the trust ] don’t want us there,” he says. “They are driven by
a vision of turning Bletchley Park into a war memorial. The relevance of the
computer museum, Colossus and what followed in the field of computing, doesn’t
seem to interest them.”


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-two/10690205/Why-Bletchley-Park-is-at-war-again.html






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