Oxford University is urgently seeking a private contractor to resume work at the abandoned building site scheduled to become its new animal experiment laboratory.
Despite fresh threats from anti-vivisectionists to target any company which picks up the £18m contract, the university said yesterday it was determined to complete the project on time by the end of next year.
On Monday, the construction company Montpellier said it was pulling out of an agreement to build the research laboratory in central Oxford, prompting the government to promise additional, albeit unspecified, measures to foil campaigns by militant animal rights protesters.
Montpellier's decision has encouraged the activists to press ahead with their protests. "We are very pleased", said Mel Broughton, the leader of Speak, which has been coordinating demonstrations and leafleting in opposition to the laboratory. "The university has said the lab will [be built], so we will be looking at whoever takes over the work. We will continue to apply pressure where appropriate."
The building site, where around 30 workmen had been employed, was deserted yesterday.
Mr Broughton said that one of the reasons for anger among the protesters was the relatively small investment in research using alternatives to animals. "That has led to frustration, which leads to direct action."
Anonymous internet postings on behalf of the Animal Liberation Front claimed responsibility for attacks last month on a Bournemouth construction company, RMC, which was said to have been supplying cement to the Oxford project.
A statement on the animal liberation website Arkangel declared: "Other companies currently involved in the building of this new research centre [should] reconsider their decision to participate in a project who's future must surely now be in question."
Oxford University yesterday expressed optimism about completing the laboratory. It said that 98% of the animals involved would be rodents. "We are already in talks with other contractors to continue this project," said a spokeswoman. "We hope to have it finished by the end of next year."
