Today we reveal the first ever official acknowledgement that Media CityUK has the potential to blow up at any minute. It comes in a well hidden document from the Salford Urban Regeneration Company and Media CityUK.
For years, elderly Salfordians have been telling the Salford Star of bombs existence on the Quays but, until today we haven't been able to print the story for lack of proof.
"Everyone who used to work on the docks remembers the massive bomb but in those days we didn't think much of it because it was just after the war and there was all sorts of stuff sticking out of the ground from the German attacks" recalls Alf Pristir, a former dock worker from Ordsall "We didn't think it was live and used to sit on it having a fag during breaks from work.
"Then, when they started redeveloping the Quays in the 70s they looked into it and found that it was live and unexploded" Alf adds "The Salford Reporter actually did a story on it but they must have hushed it up because it all went quiet after that."
Alf remembers teams of experts trying to pull the bomb out but because of the nature of the Quays' marshy ground it couldn't be excavated.
"I used to watch them trying to heave it out but it kept going further and further down so in the end they just left it and concreted it over" Alf explains "It could go off at any time!"
Proof comes in a tender document (UXB-UXO) posted on a European website where a £50,000 contract is offered for "ground investigation work" and a "survey for unexploded bombs" on Plot B4 at Media City. Plot B4 is the proposed site of the University of Salford's new tower.
The contact for the proposed work is given as EU Bovis Lend Lease – the contractors for Media City.
French media student, Avril d'Poisson, told the Salford Star that she is seriously considering leaving her course at the University of Salford before the expected move to Media City UK in two years time.
"No way am I going to put myself in danger just to get a degree" she said "The place could blow up at any minute. Only in England could they do this to students."
See the tender document here
http://www.eceurope.com/tradeleads/details.htm?session=&searchwords=&latest=&country=&stars
=&all=&bodies=&subcat=541&bidID=2031494&type=Buy&m=0
* STOP PRESS!!! Noon April 1st 2009
So was our story an April Fool's hoax or not? The response we've had so far has been phenomenal... We can now reveal that, although the quotes were by people with anagrams of `April First' and `Poisson d'Avril' (French April Fool's Day), the core of the story was absolutely true. Yes there was a contract for £50,000 to search for unexploded bombs on Plot B at Media City. And yes, old dockers do tell stories of unexploded bombs on the site.
The Manchester Evening News is following up the story and you can read about it in tomorrow's paper!
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