This article is more than 1 year old

Scottish Parliament! Pick up this Digital Point

There must be some money out of Compaq somewhere, surely?

Many years ago, Digital got a huge (and we mean huge) grant out of the English government to build a huge fab (fabrication plant = factory) at South Queensferry, not far from the nominal capital of Scotland -- i.e. Edinburgh. There was a bit of a scandal when DEC (Digital -- now Compaq) shut it down but because it was the pre-sleaze era, no one really picked this news baton up and tried to run with it. It now transpires that the local authority built a special motorway turnpike to the ex-Digital plant. AMD was going to take it over but the cost was far too great for it to pick up. (It's not Intel). A Scottish reader alerts us to the fact the huge fab is still empty, the turnpike still goes to it and there's one janitor working there whose job it is to turn the lights on...just in case anyone takes the wrong motorway turn. How much, exactly, did that motorway turnpike cost after DEC shut down the Alpha plant, opened by Her Majesty the Queen? And why is the local authority having to pick up the bill for the motorway to an empty plant (fab)? We feel Nigel Griffiths or Gordon Brown should be asked, but we don't have the courage.

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