Oil terminal Vopak seeks to overturn building permit for new prison in Maardu

Juhan Tere, BC, Tallinn, 17.02.2011.

Vopak E.O.S. that operates Estonia's largest oil terminal in Muuga Port submitted on February 17 an appeal to Tallinn District Court to overturn a construction permit for the new Tallinna Vangla prison in Maardu.

"All risk analyses confirm that the development of the prison within the safety zone of the terminal, pipeline operations and Maardu railway station will obviously interfere and limit future activities of Vopak E.O.S. Moreover, as a result of the dispute, currently 25 million euros investment into new facilities in Maardu railway infrastructure have been blocked by actions of the ministry of justice," commented Arnout Lugtmeijer, Chairman of the board of Vopak E.O.S.

"We are surprised that the ministry of justice continues this pointless dispute targeted against our activities in the industrial area of Maardu. With Vopak E.O.S.'s compromise offer on the table, the problem can be solved if the ministry of justice decides to stop running two prison project developments in parallel by choosing the new location in Rae municipality and abandoning Maardu," Lugtmeijer added.

"Over the past ten years, the employees of Vopak E.O.S. have worked very hard to become the leading terminal operator in the Baltic Sea region, creating a valuable export logistics chain together with Tallinna Sadam and Eesti Raudtee." Lugtmeijer pointed out. "Over the years Estonian governments have done excellent work in supporting entrepreneurship and investment climate in the country. Now we really expect the government to actually take a more active role in solving this stalemate situation whereby all parties are spending money in an empty process for already many years. At the end of the day, we will only come out of this economic downturn when government and entrepreneurs go about business hand-in-hand".

Vopak E.O.S. has been proactive in trying to reach a mutually acceptable solution to relocate the prison development.

"We have offered RKAS 1.28 million euros to cover non-transferable costs of the prison development, the same amount as was claimed by the ministry of justice to have already been spent on developing the project," commented Lugtmeijer.

As reported, Tallinn Administrative Court did not satisfy in the mid-January the complaint of Muuga port oil terminals operator Vopak E.O.S. trying to stop the state from building a new Tallinn prison near Maardu.

The court did not satisfy the complaint of Vopak E.O.S. over the Maardu town government’s 2009 summer and autumn decrees and dispute decisions.

The development plans approved by the Maardu town government prescribe building the new Tallinn Prison 100 meters from Vopak E.O.S. terminal, which the company says affects the company’s business activities and future plans.

Justice ministry says that in 2007 the company agreed to the development plans and cannot dispute that decision. The state has spent around 20 mln kroons for preparative work there already.

Vopak E.O.S. said that it will appeal the administrative court decision. Vopak E.O.S. board chairman Arnout Lugtmeijer said that since the state has found another location for the prison in the Rae parish, he hopes the whole dispute could be solved via talks if the justice ministry stopped developing two projects simultaneously and would choose the new location.

http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/transport/&doc=37419