AN aviation society show has been cancelled for a third year because of a long-running DUP-Sinn Féin spat blocking redevelopment of the Maze prison site.
The Ulster Aviation Society (UAS) had hoped to attract thousands of visitors this weekend for a two-day event.
But for the third year running the charity did not receive approval from the first minister and deputy first minister.
Overall four in every five requests in the past three years to visit or use the former jail site 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.
Plans for a £300m redevelopment of the site outside Lisburn have been stalled for three years.
Political tensions arose in August 2013 when 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 the aviation event was blocked by Mr McGuinness, while Sinn Féin said it could proceed if the DUP re-opened access to the prison buildings.
UAS chairman Ray Burrows yesterday hit out at the executive's "intransigence", saying: "We have heard from no-one and we haven't got an acknowledgement of our letter."
The 67-year-old from Dundonald said: "Things don't seem to have changed at all. Having suffered this now for three years, we're getting used to it."
The jail 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 Maze site must receive consent from the first and deputy first ministers, except for land used by the Royal Ulster Agricultural Society.
Requests are sent to the Maze Long Kesh Development Corporation (MLKDC) before being forwarded to the Executive Office for approval.
Only eight of the 47 applications since August 2013 have been approved by the department, according to a freedom of information request.
The Northern Ireland Office requested access in 2014 for car parking and the Fire Service in 2015 for a prison and site tour, but they were not approved.
Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt said: "Clearly, a lot of worthy groups, including charities and voluntary organisations, are paying the price for the inability of the DUP and Sinn Féin to find a way forward for the Maze site. That is plain wrong."
SDLP Lisburn councillor Pat Catney said: "The SDLP have always supported the development of the Maze/Long Kesh site in a way that objectively and sensitively conveys its history and generates an economic boost for the local area.
"In the short term the executive must allow the site to be used."
Last month it emerged that the Executive Office is reviewing the pay of MLKDC board members.
MLKDC board members continue to receive full remuneration despite the number of annual board meetings dropping from 10 to seven.
Its chair Terrence Brannigan is paid £30,000 and last year received a further £4,000 in expenses.
His nine-person board is paid about £50,000 between them, and claimed just over £700 in expenses last year.
However, there have been cutbacks, with staff numbers falling from 14 to eight and acting chief executive Kyle Alexander taking a £20,000 annual salary cut to £83,000 after dropping to a four-day week.
