Nirah Project under threat, says BOS

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The Nirah project, which could have given Bedfordshire a massive tourist boost, seems, according to Bedfordshire on Sunday, to be doomed. BoS reports:

A world-leading science and leisure centre could be lost to the area because the county council continually obstructs its progress.

Nirah is on the brink of moving out of Bedfordshire over the county council's refusal to pay £300,000 to get the project though the planning process.

This is the latest, and perhaps the last, battle in a financial war between Nirah and the consortium.

As a result, the company will be put into administration this week and the project will probably go to America.

It may end up in Bedford - but Bedford, Massachusetts.

If it had come to completion, the Nirah project would have seen a high-tech research centre and tourist attraction built on disused claypits near Stewartby.

The most likely US sponsor is Harvard University.

Bedfordshire County Council had given it £1.5m to produce a business plan and submit a plannning application.

Nirah also received £1.5m from the East of England Development Agency Nirah told the council it needed another £600,000 to complete its planning application.

This request caused months of financial friction between council officers and Nirah members.

An agreement was reached at the House of Commons, where Nirah would raise half the cash and the county council the other half. The council then said it needed Nirah to revise its business plan, based on a secret report from Price Waterhouse Coopers, which Nirah was not allowed to see.

In May, Nirah e-mailed the council, saying: ‘In view of the council's position, the directors of Nirah are considering
a) putting Nirah into Administration and
b) informing you that we are close to deciding that it would be preferable that Nirah is situated elsewhere'.

A council officer replied:

“The solution is in your hands: provide the evidence so that we can approve your business plan or amend it and we can then reconsider it.” At a secret meeting on Tuesday county councillors refused to hand over any more money.

At a further meeting on Friday, the council did not budge.

The Mayor of Bedford, Frank Branston, said: “One can argue there were faults on both sides but I cannot condone the way the consortium has acted. Nirah in Bedfordshire is drinking at the last chance saloon. Frankly I cannot work out what is in the county council's mind. It makes no sense to me.”

Patrick Hall, MP for Bedford and Kempston, said: “An over-cautious attitude is potentially killing a brilliant scheme. The council, instead of showing leadership, is going back on its word and showing it cannot be trusted.”

Bedfordshire County Council's director of environment, Tim Malynn, said: "There has been a lot of positive discussion and there is a lot of common ground "I am grateful Bedfordshire on Sunday wants to be supportive of Nirah, but to have a debate in the public arena at this stage is not helpful to the project."

Peter May, chairman of Nirah, said:"We have tried our utmost to bring Nirah to Bedfordshire and have been met with fantastic support from the public. Nearly 1,000 people have been through the exhibitions and of those 95 per cent have been in favour of the idea. But despite the help of the Mayor of Bedford Frank Branston and MPs Patrick Hall and Alistair Burt we have come to the end of the road.”

(One could say that this is all posturing, but the feeling I gain in town is that we really are at the end of negotiations. It would be an awful pity if Bedfordshire were to lose out on such a promising project).

Robert Leggat