WORK has begun on the next phase of works on the former fuel tank site at Osprey Quay on Portland. Contractors have begun digging up ground to build a new road and will demolish a building to create car parking spaces for the 2012 Olympics.

The area will be developed into marine and leisure units for businesses after the games.

The scheme is part of a £40 million masterplan by the South West Regional Development Agency to breathe new life into the former Royal Navy air station site.

John Harvey, the former commander of the air station from 1995 until it closed in 1999, welcomed the latest development.

He said: “It is a good part of the progress towards the 2012 Olympics.

“The space will be used for the inevitable car and boat parking that will be needed.

“Although it was sad to see the tank farm go, they weren’t the most attractive looking objects.”

He added that good progress was being made and that the site was looking good.

Mr Harvey oversaw the shut down of the HMAS Osprey air station in 1999. The 10-acre Mere tank farm bordered the beach road next to the air station.

The site was cleared of oil tanks last year, having been bought by Weymouth and Portland Borough Council from Portland Port, using funding from the South West Regional Development Agency.

The council is managing work on the site.

A spokesman for BAM Nuttall said: “Excavation work has started and the process has begun on the remediation of the old oil storage depot on Osprey Quay. We are working in partnership with the South West RDA to complete this scheme by April next year, putting in roads and service infrastructure ahead of the games, when the eyes of the world will focus on Weymouth and Portland.”