THE ULSTER Unionists and unionist victims group, Fair, have criticised plans to redevelop the former Maze prison site and to incorporate a conflict resolution centre.
Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said he and First Minister Peter Robinson would submit plans for a new development which could employ up to 6,000 workers and help rejuvenate the depressed construction and allied sectors.
Mr McGuinness said that EU funding would be sought for the plans which have faced years of delay because of wrangling between unionists and republicans over the proper use of the 360-acre site near Lisburn, Co Antrim.
A shared multi-sports stadium will not feature in the new plans, but extensive redevelopment including retention of the H Block hospital where IRA hunger strikers died in 1981 will be unveiled.
A conflict transformation centre also features prominently, causing some unionist criticism.
The annual agricultural show, organised by the Royal Ulster Agricultural Society, could relocate to the site from south Belfast early in the development.
The SDLP’s Dolores Kelly welcomed the plan, but she criticised the delays which have blocked the redevelopment of the prison which closed in 2000 and said the DUP/Sinn Féin-led Executive needed to prove itself.
Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey, while welcoming the announcement, expressed caution over the plans for the conflict resolution centre facility.
“The prison is regarded very differently by different political traditions – it would be a shame for the facility itself to become a symbol of division,” he said.
Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister accused his former colleagues in the DUP of a climbdown, claiming they had “rolled over to Sinn Féin demands that central to Maze development is development of the shrine project”.