Speaking to the ‘Journal’ this week, Ms Fraser said Ilex was pulling out all the stops to ensure its plans are delivered diligently and efficiently, adding that any criticism of progress was unfounded.

“There’s a lot happening in the background - we’re all working very hard,” she said.

She also revealed that the urban regeneration company’s finalised masterplan for the transformation of the city’s riverfront will be published next month.

The draft masterplan for the £171 million Fort George development - published to much fanfare in December of last year - received both plaudits and brickbats in equal measure.

Ms Fraser, however, has given assurances that any outstanding public concerns about the plan have now been ironed out following a three month-long “extensive consultation”. Indeed, she confirmed that Ilex is hoping to press ahead with planning applications in the not too distant future.

She also revealed that an announcement on funding to build a foot and cycle bridge across the River Foyle, linking Ebrington in the Waterside to the city’s west bank, is “imminent” while the cycle/foot path from Sainsburys to Bay Park is due to open next week.

And for motorists driven to breaking point by daily traffic chaos, confirmation that an integrated transport strategy for the city is due to be published by the end of next month will no doubt be welcomed as a step in the right direction.

On the eye-catching plans for Fort George, Ms Fraser said the “main focus” was currently on finalising planning issues. “We’ve been getting ready for the final version of the masterplan which will be published in September.

“Everything is moving. We’re getting the planning applications ready - both an outline application for the whole site and a full planning application for the public realm and the infrastructure.”

She said that she was “not anticapating” any problems emerging from the Environmental Impact Assessment - the scope of which is the only outstanding issue to be agreed with planning officials ahead of the submission of blueprints.

Contaminated

However, she did reveal that, “as predicted”, the former naval repair works and shipyard site was discovered to be contaminated.

“It’s nothing that you wouldn’t expect to find on a site like this. Given its past uses, it was very likely there was going to be hydrocarbons such as petrol and fuel and heavy metals not suitable for building on.

“We had always thought they were there, it was just a matter of ascertaining the extent of the problem and the best methodology for treating that.”

Ilex is now seeking a licence from the Environmental Heritage Service to “deal” with the contamination while “a hell of a lot” of buried concrete has already been excavated.

According to Ms Fraser there have been “no obstacles” to progress on the site in the early days of the project.