By Roger Highfield
UK Telegraph
Date accessed: 15 January 2001
The campus is central to efforts to make Britain the "biotech hub"
of Europe so that it can corner a market estimated to be worth £70 billion by
2005, an aim given enthusiastic support in a recent speech by Tony Blair.
However, Sir John Sulston and Sir Christopher Evans are troubled by wrangling
over the campus. Sir Christopher said that he had voiced concerns to Lord
Sainsbury, the science minister, that further delay could lead to the campus
being established abroad, possibly in America, when Cambridge is the
"obvious site".
"I do not believe that will happen, but if it did it would be a
disaster," said Sir Christopher. He added that the way parochial interests
had held up a project of national importance "scares me".
Sir John, referring to how the campus would translate genetic knowledge into
lucrative medical tests and treatments, said: "I am disappointed that we
did not get this immediate link to industrial applications.
"This country desperately needs as much translation as possible. Having
some bright and more innovative - in the industrial sense - people next door
would have been really good."
Dithering over the campus dates from 1997, when the world's largest
biomedical charity, the Wellcome Trust, submitted a proposal to develop a 40,000
square metre site, next to the Sanger Centre, Hinxton. This is the hub of
Britain's effort to read genetic codes, where Sir John was director, and
continues his work on the human genome.
Despite the promise of 1,800 jobs from work at the campus to exploit this
knowledge, the proposal was opposed by South Cambridgeshire district council
because of concerns about roads, housing and other infrastructure.
After a public inquiry, John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister,
rejected Wellcome's original plan in August 1999
but put forward a compromise based on 24,000 square metres and restricted to
new companies, not mature companies.
The revised plan was condemned as "daft" and "ludicrous"
by Dr Michael Morgan, chief executive of the campus. As if to underline the
crucial strategic importance of the campus, offers then flooded in to build it
in America, Europe, Japan and Asia.
The genome campus is in danger of becoming a political embarrassment. As Mr
Blair extols the importance of biotechnology - and Britain is a leading force in
global efforts to read genetic codes - the Wellcome is still struggling to
devise a proposal based on the scaled down compromise.
Despite helpful discussions with the local authorities, devising a viable
proposal based on the compromise plan "is proving extremely
difficult", said Dr Morgan. "You would not get a return that would
justify that investment, in fact you are looking at a £45 million
deficit."
A Government blunder has not helped. A letter from the Department of
Environment referred to a compromise site of only 14,000 square metres, a figure
which remains legally in force, even though all interested parties accept that
the compromise figure is actually 24,000 square metres. Categories: 16.
Economics and Biotechnology, 32.
Genome Project