01/05/2008

Causeway Visitor Centre Back On?

New plans for the construction of a replacement Giant's Causeway Visitor Centre are set to be submitted.

The National Trust is to show its fresh proposals to Moyle Council - which owns the ground - within the next two weeks and to apply for planning permission in June for its proposed centre to replace the original one that was destroyed by fire in 2000.

Since then, there has been an ongoing debate over what should replace it and by whom it should be built and at one stage, Moyle Council even considered selling the land.

Then, local developer, Seymour Sweeney, put forward a proposal to develop a multi-million pound centre at the world heritage site which was supported by the Ian Paisley Jnr, then a DUP Junior Minister in the Stormont Executive.

Party colleague and NI Environment Minister Arlene Foster first said she was "minded" to accept this proposal from Mr Sweeney, who also turned out to be a DUP member.

However, last year, Moyle District Council suddenly agreed to lease the site to the National Trust.

This lead to further confusion as the Minister then rejected Mr Sweeney's proposals. This left the door open to the National Trust to put forward these latest plans, which they've been developing for more than a year.

See: Causeway Could 'See More' Of Sweeney

(BMcC)

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