Science city – just a hi-tech fantasy plan
May 30 2009 by Adrian Pearson, The Journal
SCIENCE City bosses are spending £23m on a pointless “mirage”, a regeneration expert has claimed.
City planners have been accused of living out a “hi-tech fantasy” after it was revealed they are determined to build a key science complex in Newcastle despite no private company coming forward to say they will definitely use it.
Newcastle University, development agency One North East and the city council have all contributed millions of pounds to turn the old Tyne Brewery site into a modern science development. But Henry Etzkowitz, head of the Newcastle University’s Triple Helix Research Group set up to help transform the economy, has warned their money will be wasted.
He claims the science partnership behind the spending decisions should have followed Ireland’s example and turned the Brewery site into a tourist attraction. In a column for The Journal Mr Etzkowitz points to the Centre for Life building as an example of how planners poured millions of pounds of public cash into a worthy cause, only to see large parts remain unused years later.
He claims city planners have “bombed” themselves by failing to open up the brewery site as part of a Newcastle Brown tourist project to repeat the success of the old Guinness brewery site in Dublin.
Mr Etzkowitz, a supporter of Science City, warns the Science Gateway office project risks becoming a white elephant and adds that “a spectre of empty buildings haunts the existing Newcastle Science City strategy”.
Calling for “a reality check” before public cash is spent on more unused buildings, he today urges city leaders to renovate existing empty buildings and spend the rest of the cash on attracting more leading scientists to the city. Last night Newcastle Council boss John Shipley committed himself to spending £8m of city cash on the new building.
He said: “The building proposed is rather limited in a sense, we are not going forward with a very large scale development, but it is vital that we pursue physical developments at this period to help kick start the local economy.
“We have to do what we can to support the private sector during the recession.
“In principle what has been said is correct; the success of science city will depend absolutely on the quality of scientific research and not on the buildings. That has always been the case. The difference is that now we will have to do both at the same time. I don’t see a conflict there.” Mr Shipley said he agreed with a recent HSBC report which predicted Newcastle would come out of the recession with a stronger economy as its scientific research earns it the “supercity” label.
“This is what we have been saying for some time now, that cities are the driving force for economic expansion, and those that develop areas of expertise will be those that do better in the future.”
But Nick Kemp, who leads the council’s regeneration scrutiny team, warned the city had lost sight of its aims.
He said: “You have here a well respected academic who works with business saying this is the wrong way to go about this, and that has to be listened to. We should be focusing on people and jobs not buildings. Science City will have a huge impact on Newcastle and the region but not if we insist on just building a new business park.”
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Newcastle Council to help kick-start Science City project
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