Dunton Technical Centre

The Dunton Technical Centre is a major automotive research and development facility located in Dunton Wayletts, Laindon, Essex, United Kingdom owned and operated by Ford Motor Company. It was the largest automotive technical centre in the United Kingdom and takes its name from the nearby Dunton Wayletts. Ford Dunton houses the main design team of Ford of Europe alongside its Merkenich Technical Centre in Cologne, Germany. Dunton has around 3,000 staff currently work at the site.LocationFord Dunton is situated at the junction of West Mayne (B148) and the A127 Southend Arterial Road, in Dunton Wayletts in the district of Basildon. An electricity pylon line straddles the site. In front of the building, to the north, is a vehicle test track. To the south is the Southfields Business Park. The site lies in the religious parish of Laindon with Dunton, formerly in Dunton and Bulphan before 1976. Dunton is a small hamlet to the west, with a former church near Dunton Hall. There is a Ford dealership on the B148 on the north-west corner of the site.HistoryConstructionFord Dunton was constructed by George Wimpey for a contracted price of £6.5 million. The total cost of the centre was around £10 million. The centre originally had 45,000sqft of space for design work, making it the largest engineering research centre in Europe. Another development site at Aveley had been opened in 1956 which made prototype cars and spare parts, and closed in 2004. Ford's earlier UK design site was at Dagenham (5 start building) and it previously had seven engineering sites around the UK, with five in Essex; these all moved to Dunton.