Appendix 7
Letter from Rt Hon Shaun Woodward MP, Secretary
of State for Northern Ireland, to Sir Patrick Cormack MP, Chairman
of the Committee, 18 December 2007, re Redundant Military and
Security Sites in Northern Ireland
Thank you for your letter of 25 October, enclosing
one from Pat Doherty, MP, about the sites of vacated military
installations at Lisanelly and St Lucia barracks, Omagh. I am,
as you know, extremely sorry you have waited this long for a reply.
These installations are two of a number of military
sites, no longer being used by the military following the normalisation
programme, as set out in the 2003 Joint Declaration, which has
been successfully completed.
The Reinvestment and Reform package of 2002 included
certain such sites for free transfer to the Executive but the
joint Declaration was not precise about which other sites might
be made available or indeed about the terms on which they might
be made available.
As Pat Doherty notes in his letter, the question
of how these sites might be disposed, was raised in the Joint
Declaration. Annex 1 of the Declaration outlined the planned security
normalisation programme, paragraph 10 of that Annex states.
'Many of the vacated military and police (subject
to the agreement of the Policing Board) sites might be made available
to the OFM/DFM's Reinvestment and Reform Initiative to ensure
that the process of normalisation generates a new public asset
base for those communities most directly affected by the security
arrangements to date.'
There is clearly scope for ambiguous interpretation.
As you will appreciate the financial value of many of these sites
is considerable, disposal below market value would be contrary
to normal government accounting rules. It is already the case
that such sites are normally offered to the Northern Ireland Executive
at a price valued by the independent Valuation and Lands Agency
rather than sold on the open market. It should also be noted that
the Northern Ireland CSR settlement included a significant capital
budget of £18bn for strategic capital investment spread over
the period 2005 to 2017. Nonetheless, the Northern Ireland Office,
and the Ministry of Defence (the disposal of vacated military
sites, including the Lisanelly and St Lucia barracks sites, is
of course a matter for MOD), remain committed to working closely
with the Northern Ireland Executive, ensuring maximum benefit
is derived from the development of these vacated sites.
For your information, Pat Doherty has written separately
about the Omagh sites, also seeking a meeting which I will be
happy to arrange in the New Year.
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