Fort George clean-up delayed for many months

The contract for cleaning up the former Army Base - the proposed site of a new jobs-boosting Science Park - won’t be advertised until September.

It was previously hoped the job would be finished by June 2012. Now tenders won’t even be returned until January next year.

The huge delay follows a warning - reported in the Sentinel - that delays in the process of funding applications for projects like the Fort George Science Park could result in major opportunities going up in smoke.

Last year former Social Development Minister Alex Attwood said that decontamination work was expected to begin in the middle of 2011 and was expected to complete by June 2012.

But now the First minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness have revealed these targets have slipped until 2013.

The Ministers stated: “Consultants have been appointed and the draft remedial strategy is to be agreed with the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) by June 2012.

“The tender for the decontamination contract is due to be advertised in September 2012 with tenders to be returned by January 2013.”

The revelation follows a warning by Frank Hewitt, the Chairman of the Northern Ireland Science Park (NISP) that the opportunity for a new Regional Science Park at Fort George could “slip away” if funding timescales were not met.

Mr Hewitt - also a member of the ILEX board - had been referring to the slow appraisal of a 14million euro funding application to the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB) for “a transformational science park project” and “flagship envisaged for Fort George.”

Now the OFMDFM Ministers have stated that a response on this SEUPB application is expected next month (May 2012.)

A Fort George Framework is also due to be completed in this month (April 2012), said the Ministers.

Last year DSD announced that £3.2 million had been secured from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) toward the decontamination costs for Fort George.

But decontamination start and completion dates for the middle of 2011 and June 2012 have now proved optimistic.

DSD previously estimated that the costs of remediation work at Fort George could be up to £9million.