Over £16m spent on Maze site 'where nothing is happening'
STORMONT ministers are under pressure to justify spending over £16 million on the Maze prison site on which "nothing appears to be happening".
On Wednesday, it was widely reported that the Office of First Minister and Deputy First Minister (OFMDFM) had spent 12.5 million on the 340 acres of former prison land.
OFMDFM figures show how the 12.5 million was spent and confirms that a further 3.6 million was spent by the Department of Culture Arts and Leisure (DCAL) on consultants for a proposed stadium at the site in 2006.
A DCAL spokesman said most of its 3.6 million related to design of the proposed stadium (3.1 million) and the remainder was mainly for the related business plan and programme management.
Questions are also being asked as to why a private-public corporation to develop the site, promised over a year ago by Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness, has not yet been set up.
The debate was provoked by an Assembly question by Lagan Valley Alliance MLA Trevor Lunn.
"I am not buying this," he said yesterday.
"After 10 years, we have nothing, no product and no ultimate body established to take the Maze forward.
"We were told last April by the First and Deputy First Ministers that a development corporation made up of members of the private and public sectors would be established with all speed.
"But a year later we are being told that legislation for this to happen is going in front of the Assembly in the near future. But in reality it is unlikely to be before recess, so it looks like September at the earliest. I am concerned about over 16 million being spent when I can't see any result for it."
OFMDFM committee chairman Danny Kennedy said: "Obviously there is public concern about this amount of money being spent on a site on which nothing appears to be happening.
"We have asked for an urgent meeting with departmental officials for a briefing on these figures, the status of the Maze site and the status of the corporation which is to develop it."
An OFMDFM spokesman said its 12.6 million costs were incurred over seven years since the gifting of the site in 2003.
"The site is vast," he said."Decontam-ination of such a large area is a mammoth undertaking. Literally hundreds of buildings had to be decontaminated, demolished and cleared.”
Funding major capital expenditure projects are difficult in a recession, he said, and OFMDFM’s Programme Development Unit is “working to prepare for the necessary work needed to develop a fresh masterplanning framework”.
He added that key work has been done, including discussions with the Royal Ulster Agricultural Society, and hopes to create a Centre for Rural Excellence at the Maze site.
Yesterday, Sinn Fein blamed unionists for the delays.
A statement from party Assembly group leader John O’Dowd said: “It should be remembered that it was the unionists who opposed the development of a shared sports stadium for the site.”
He claimed the DUP “are still sitting on the issue” of developing the land.
The EU is willing to invest around 20 million in the site for peace and reconciliation, he added.
DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson rejected Mr O’Dowd’s claims, saying the block to the project was instead Sinn Fein.
“We are absolutely clear that there is no delay on our part in moving this project forward, indeed we have approved Maze Development Committee as have the OFMDFM committee in the Assembly,” he said.
“If John O’Dowd is serious about this we will have this confirmation very promptly.”
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Monday 28 May 2012
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