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Stormont department prints 18,000 brochures with Maze show error

The Ulster Aviation Society's Ray Burrows and Malcolm Deeley at the Maze prison site, and the heritage days brochure
The Ulster Aviation Society's Ray Burrows and Malcolm Deeley at the Maze prison site, and the heritage days brochure The Ulster Aviation Society's Ray Burrows and Malcolm Deeley at the Maze prison site, and the heritage days brochure

A STORMONT department printed 18,000 brochures that mistakenly included a Maze prison site event blocked by a long-running spat between the DUP and Sinn Féin.

The brochures were produced at a cost of £10,000 by the Department for Communities (DfC) to promote last weekend's European Heritage Open Days (EHOD).

They included details of a free event the Ulster Aviation Society (UAS) planned to hold as part of the annual culture and heritage weekend.

However, UAS had to cancel after a request for approval did not receive any response from the first and deputy first minister's department.

The charity has had to pull numerous events at the former prison site over the years because of a political dispute.

Plans for a £300m redevelopment of the site outside Lisburn have stalled for three years.

In August 2013 then First Minister Peter Robinson halted plans to build a peace centre after unionist critics claimed it would become a shrine to terrorism.

Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness responded by saying no further development would take place until the issue was resolved.

The DUP has previously claimed UAS events were blocked by Mr McGuinness, while Sinn Féin said they could proceed if the DUP re-opened access to the prison buildings.

UAS, which is based at the Maze site, is described in the EHOD brochure as a "World War Two hanger complex containing Ireland's largest aviation heritage collection".

Chairman Ray Burrows said: "It's a little bit embarrassing that we have it in the brochure that we're open and then we're having to rescind that."

The 67-year-old from Dundonald added: "I feel it is absolutely criminal that a place such as what we have, a unique place, is not allowed to open its doors to the public."

It comes just weeks after UAS had to cancel its summer show for a third year running because of the prison dispute.

EHOD on September 10-11 saw more than 300 properties open their doors for free across the north.

The Maze prison was famously the site of the IRA hunger strikes and held some of the north's most notorious paramilitaries before it closed in 2000.

Applicants wishing to use the site must receive consent from the first and deputy first ministers, except for land used by the Royal Ulster Agricultural Society.

Overall four in every five requests in the past three years have gone unanswered by the Executive Office.

Charities, community groups, film crews and even public bodies – the Northern Ireland Office and Fire Service – have as a result been denied access.

A DfC spokesman said: "The brochure explains that the department 'have made every effort to ensure that the information in the brochure is correct at the time of printing'.

"We are, however, reliant upon the organisers of events to ensure that they have obtained relevant permissions."

An Executive Office spokesman said: "There is no current agreement on the use of the Maze/Long Kesh site. Requests for meetings and access to the site are considered on a case-by-case basis."