DUP ENVIRONMENT Minister Sammy Wilson has finally approved the construction of a new £21 million (€22.4 million) visitors’ centre at the Giant’s Causeway.
The world heritage site in Co Antrim attracts 400,000 people every year and is owned by Britain’s National Trust. The site’s dedicated visitors’ centre was destroyed by fire in April 2000 and temporary buildings have been in use since.
Heneghan Peng Architects of Dublin, winners of a design competition for the new centre, will now go ahead despite being rejected by former environment minister Nigel Dodds in 2007 in favour of consideration of a private sector alternative.
Mr Wilson said he had since “weighed up all the options” in relation to what he called the North’s “premier tourist attraction”. He referred to the “unacceptably long period” that the attraction had been without a visitors’ centre.
The North’s National Trust director, Hilary McGrady, said the construction of the new centre would create jobs and boost tourism.
It is estimated that it will open in 2011.
SDLP North Antrim Assembly member Declan O’Loan welcomed the announcement but said it was long overdue.
He said the Causeway was the “jewel in the crown” of the North’s tourism industry and hoped there would be no further delays in commencing work on the project.
Ulster Unionist Assembly member for the area Rev Robert Coulter was similarly pleased, saying that the lack of a visitors’ centre over the last eight years had damaged the Giant’s Causeway’s ability to maximise its tourism potential.
DUP East Antrim Assembly member Alastair Ross said the announcement demonstrated the effectiveness of the Stormont Executive, in that the actions of devolved Ministers had “forced movement” on the issue.
Alliance Party leader David Ford welcomed the news and called for “a centre befitting of the causeway’s world heritage site status”.
Proposals for a new visitors’ centre have been dogged by controversy and allegations of corruption and cronyism, none of them proven, since the original facility was destroyed.