Bye Bye White Elephant

Backblip from yesterday is over here.

For years local people have referred to it as the 'Hyundai' building, and whilst it was 'Motorola' for a wee while, most people still call it Hyundai....despite the fact that this semiconductor plant never produced a single product of any kind for any manufacturer since it was built in the late 90s.

When news of the development was announced, the town got quite excited, promises of new jobs in a high tech industry. Colleges started to think about specialist courses and training to support the plant....

....and then the global market for microchips collapsed and the plant was mothballed without a single job being created or a single product being manufactured. That is not strictly true on the jobs, there were obviously construction jobs and my wife had a job working for one of the engineering companies fitting out the plant, ordering heating pipes.

These pipes and everything else are now being stripped out and the plant demolished to make way for a "vibrant renewables hub" and a development that seems to include plans for a hotel and housing. The company that have bought it have apparently paid millions for the site, so let's hope they make a success of it, as this place has had plenty of false dawns.

The blip doesn't really show the scale of the 150 acre site, but it is huge and this big white elephant has dominated this area of town, making the houses around it look tiny.

Mum, wife and wee girl picked this blip as they liked the 'peering through the gate/no entry/keep out' look.