Haslar Royal Hospital development 'miscommunication' leaves residents surprised by Ministry of Defence wargame

Over the last month, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has staged several military exercises at the Haslar site, which has been undergoing residential redevelopment since 2014.

Residents told The News that they were surprised to see soldiers and huge Chinook helicopters storming sections of the former hospital – without any prior notice that battle simulations would be going on within earshot.

Marie-Claire Scherman, one of more than 50 residents on the site, said: 'If you hear guns and explosions, you do think, 'what's going on?'’

'I think they staged a military evacuation. There was a lot of people dressed up as wounded individuals.’

Neighbours said that they supported the exercises – but they wished that residents had been notified, as refugees fleeing war-torn Ukraine are currently staying with several families in the development.

Resident Patsie Ruzewicz, who is hosting a mother and her two young children from the city of Lviv, in Ukraine, said: ‘My family didn’t find it too distressing. They understood we are in a military area.’

'There's so many military people who live here, they all think it's great there's drills going on here.

‘The issue is that we weren’t informed.’

Michael Collins, a resident on the site since 2014, added: 'I understand they don't want to publicise it, but we just want a day's notice.'

A spokeswoman from Haslar Developments Ltd said ‘miscommunication’ meant residents had not been informed.

She said: 'The MoD exercises have been taking place on a cordoned-off section of the Royal Haslar development site which is currently not occupied by new apartment buildings.

‘This section of the site will soon be developed to provide more waterfront apartments, therefore, the exercises will not be continuing at the Royal Haslar development.

'In previous MoD exercises, residents have been informed in advance, but the most recent exercise was not communicated as a result of a change in personnel within the contractors who are undertaking construction work at Royal Haslar.

‘(We) are undertaking a thorough review of the matter to ensure that this sort of one-off miscommunication is not repeated in the future.'