Auditors to consider Old City Hotel site

The Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO) confirmed to the Sentinel that it has been approached by Paul Maskey MLA, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, over the Department of Social Development (DSD) owned Old City Hotel site.

Over 1,053,000 was spent on the DSD site over the past decade despite its remaining dormant for the ten year period.

More than half-a-million pounds of public money was spent suing a developer who promised but failed to build a hotel on the site. DSD forked out almost 700,000 of this for compensation and legal fees arising from legal action taken against a development company granted a licence to build on the Foyle Street site in 1996.

A NIAO spokesperson said the matter has been drawn to its attention and the office is currently considering how best to deal with the issue.

Social Development Minister Alex Attwood said the legal action "was resisted by the company leading to protracted legal action in both the High Court and Lands Tribunal which ended with the Department successfully repossessing the site in 2005.

"However the total cost of this, which included compensation of 557k and legal fees, was some 675k."

Foyle MLA Martina Anderson said: "I recognise the need for additional car parking in the city but we could have had that ten years ago and without squandering over 1m of public funds.

"I believe that is a scandalous waste and I brought it to the attention of the Public accounts Committee."