Campaigners reveal hope of restoring Pallion Shipyard back to working order

The Pallion Shipyard Partnership are planning a rally on Wednesday, November 17, with marchers leaving Keel Square in Sunderland city centre at 2.30pm to head to the Stadium of Light where a full Sunderland City Council meeting is set to take place.

The group intend to deliver a petition to councillors, which has almost been signed by 2,000 people who are in support of plans looking at securing investment to restore the site back to operational use.

Shipbuilding began to decline in Sunderland towards the end of the 1970s and the city’s last shipyards eventually closed in 1989, bringing an end to over six centuries of shipbuilding on the Wear.

To this day, Pallion Shipyard remains the only standing shipyard to remain in the city since it closed at the end of the 1980s.

Organiser Brian Moore highlights that the reopening of Pallion Shipyard could provide young people leaving school with an opportunity to develop skills that could be transferable throughout their working lives.

The 61-year-old said: “This is about a public show of support for restoring the yard back to operational use, especially with the developments of offshore wind farms in the North Sea.

"We want to see jobs for the next generation and see young people secure apprenticeships and skills that will be transferable for different roles around the world.

"Teenagers leaving school could have a massive opportunity to become engineers, earn a good wage and Pallion Shipyard could be the ideal pathway to facilitate that development.

"Any business coming into that shipyard could be the greatest investment into Sunderland since Nissan.”

The leader of Sunderland City Council, Councillor Graeme Miller, has stated that the local authority will welcome businesses looking to invest inside in the city, however the council do not have ownership of the site.

Cllr Miller commented: “We welcome businesses looking at investing in our city and we have a strong record of attracting both private and public sector investment.

“The Pallion Shipyard site is not owned by Sunderland City Council and is in private ownership.”

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