£1 billion science park ditched

8:24am Wednesday 15th November 2006

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IT was intended to create 2,000 vital jobs for the Selby and York area.

But Selby MP John Grogan revealed today that plans to build a £1 billion science park near Selby look set to be abandoned.

He said outgoing Science Minister Lord Sainsbury had effectively "killed off" the bid to build the European Spallation Source (ESS) at Burn Airfield before resigning last week.

The Minister wrote a letter to Richard Gregory, Chair of Yorkshire Science, which appeared to cast doubt on the location for the facility, where scientists would have carried out research with neutrons.

Lord Sainsbury wrote that he "would not support any large scale scientific facilities outside the two science and innovation campuses at Daresbury in Lancashire and Harwell in Oxford."

He went on to say the Government had taken a "strategic decision" that all future "large scale scientific facilities" would go to the two existing sites.

Mr Grogan said: "Without doubt, Lord Sainsbury was trying to kill off Yorkshire's bid to host a major science facility as he was clearing his desk to leave the Government.

"The truth is that he has always favoured the Oxford scientific establishment, and in the meetings I have had with him he has always seemed rather disdainful of the merits of the north of England and the world-class science to be found here.

"The former Science Minister appears to be trying to rule out not only the European Spallation Source project at Burn but any future strategic science investment in the region."

Development agency Yorkshire Forward and the White Rose University Consortium - made up of York, Leeds and Sheffield universities - had bid to build the centre at Burn.

Mr Grogan said the ESS project was potentially as economically important to Yorkshire as the Olympics would be for London.

He said he would seek a meeting with new Science Minister Malcolm Wicks, together with Yorkshire Forward and White Rose.

"As a former lecturer at the University of York, I hope the new science Minister will take a more enlightened view of the scientific and economic potential of Yorkshire. We cannot let Lord Sainsbury's letter stand as official government policy," he added.

Simon Hill, Yorkshire Forward's Executive Director of Business, said: "The indication by Lord Sainsbury that the region may not be successful in its bid to host the facility is of course disappointing and we are requesting a meeting with the Science Minister, Malcolm Wicks, to discuss the region's future, in terms of the ESS and the future development of a major science facility in Yorkshire and Humber.

"Through its involvement with the ESS, Yorkshire and Humber has clearly demonstrated the strength of its proposition in the field of science and technology and its commitment and ability to host a major science facility at the Burn site."