The still vacant Hynix site at Imperial Park must be occupied soon says Rosemary Butler.

The Welsh Assembly's Audit Committee says in a new report that millions of pounds of public money were needlessly put at risk when the Government of the day agreed to give financial help to the Korean firm LG for a cathode ray plant at Imperial Park, with further plans for a Hynix semi-conductor plant which never went ahead.

The former cathode ray site has now been occupied but the second site is still vacant.Of the original £131m government investment, £71m has now been recovered.

The committee warned:

”"The future of the Hynix site is less certain. The semi-conductor building is very large
and is unsuitable for most businesses, so it has proven difficult to find occupiers.
The building is suitable for data centres, however, which is a growing market. The
undeveloped parts of the site are also being promoted for the relocation of
Government offices.

"All of this is welcome, but it is unlikely that the new occupiers will match the number and quality of the jobs that the LG companies were expected to provide. It is important that the Hynix site in particular is occupied soon, since the Assembly Government is currently meeting the substantial cost of maintaining it."

Rosemary Butler says:

"Obviously there are a lessons to be learned, but I'm glad that so much of the original public investment has been recovered.It's also worth noting that if LG hadn't come to Newport in the first place we might never have had this first class industrial site.

" I agree that it's very important to find an occupier for the Hynix site as soon as possible.Despite some of the drawbacks referred to in the Committee's report it's still a very good site and I've been talking to ministers and officials about the various options.

"I'm confident that this site will be put to good use as soon as possible and that it will play a major part in the continuing regeneration of Newport."

Wednesday, November 7