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The Highland Council’s Caithness Area Committee visited New Park Management’s new Business and Technology Park at Forss, Caithness today (4TH NOVEMBER 2003), to see at first hand how the decommissioning at UKAEA Dounreay is bringing major benefits to the local economy.

The £6m (six million pounds) development by Scottish company New Park Management is converting the Forss site, which has lain derelict for a decade, in to a hi-tech Business and Technology Park to meet the needs of UKAEA and the private sector contractors undertaking the decommissioning of the Dounreay site. Forss is part of New Park’s growing network of Technology Centres situated throughout Scotland that links Forss to other prestigious sites such as the Midlothian Innovation Centre.

The development has been funded by New Park with grant assistance from Caithness & Sutherland Enterprise and ERDF grant from the Highlands and Islands Partnership Programme and has been made possible by the commitment of UKAEA to locate 140 of its key staff in the Major Projects and Engineering Division on the Park.

David Flear, Convener of the Caithness Area Committee, said, “It is vitally important that the decommissioning of Dounreay is used to create lasting benefit to the Caithness economy and in particular, to create sustainable jobs for its people. I congratulate New Park Management and UKAEA for the vision and commitment that has made the development of Forss possible and created the opportunities for long term jobs and business growth.”

Commenting on UKAEA’s role, Colin Bayliss, Director of the Major Projects and Engineering Division said, “UKAEA is delighted that by locating staff at Forss it has been able apply an innovative solution that both meets its own business needs and acts as a catalyst to drive the development of key infrastructure for the growth of the Caithness economy.”

New Park Management’s Executive Chairman, Murdo Mackenzie said, “The Park will make a major contribution to the local economy by attracting inward investment to the Far North and will encourage the growth of existing businesses and new starts. We are creating something that will continue to bring benefit to the local area after decommissioning.”