Camden New Journal - News: Terrorism fears over Brill Place

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Camden New Journal - by PAUL KEILTHY
Published: 11 October 2007

Terrorism fears over Brill Place

Bio-science centre on British Library site could be a target for extremists

THE massive bio-science centre leading the hunt to buy vacant land behind the British Library – which would house deadly viruses and up to 30,000 lab animals – could be a security risk and result in a decline in medical research, according to scientists.
The only declared contender out of six shortlisted bidders for the 3.6-acre site at Brill Place is a £350 million research centre to be run by the multiple Nobel prize-winning Medical Research Council (MRC) in partnership with Cancer Research UK and the Wellcome Trust, as the New Journal revealed in August.
But the proposed British Library International Science Site (BLISS) is the focus of debate within the scientific community following a two-year catalogue of financial set-backs, and security concerns over the siting of the country’s highest-level virus containment facilities near the known terrorist targets of Euston and King’s Cross stations.
Despite intense internal opposition, the MRC’s management has driven the relocation of the National Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) to central London from their existing 47-acre base in Mill Hill for four years, and bought the National Temperance Hospital site in Hampstead Road for £28 million in 2006.
But the 0.9 acre hospital site instantly hit problems, first from a leaked letter from the security agency MI5 which warned that a central London bio-science centre could be the target of both international and animal extremist terrorists.
In March, a parliamentary select committee branded the purchase too small and “an object lesson in how not to handle such a project”. The MRC then identified the British Library site as more suitable.
Scientists at the existing NIMR are forbidden by contract from dealing with the press, but two have spoken to the New Journal on conditions of confidentiality. One said: “This whole project is misguided and will lead to worse science. There are no scientific arguments for moving from our current site – which is surrounded by a perimeter fence and has room for expansion – to a much tighter site.
“I am not saying there is a risk from the containment facilities, but clearly there is a greater risk in the centre of London than out in north London.”
The MRC has declined to comment on details of the new centre until it learns the outcome of the bidding process, but in evidence to the select committee, the MRC’s then chief executive Sir Colin Blakemore made clear that a new centre would rehouse all the functions now at Mill Hill.
These include studies of the influenza virus, avian flu, stem cell research, and genetics.
An MRC press official said yesterday (Wednesday): “Plans for the National Temperance Hospital site are on hold while the possibility of BLISS is explored.”

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