Skate Park for Derry & Strabane: Council to set up residents' meeting after preferred site identified

It has also emerged that no budget has been allocated or attached to the project as yet.

Independent Councillor Paul Gallagher raised the matter of resident engagement at Full Council as elected representatives perused the Environment and Regeneration Committee minutes from an earlier meeting in June. At that earlier meeting, a report identified Beechmount Avenue in Strabane as the preferred site for the long lobbied-for skater facility for the north west.

The committee was told at the time that the majority support received from the resident engagement process had informed this decision, but Colr. Gallagher said there had only been an 11% response, with 5 residents in favour and 3 against.

"The response was very, very low,” he said, while asking: “Should we just proceed with that?”

"There is a sense we are putting all our eggs in one basket, but we haven’t, possibly, investigated the resident engagement process fully and we could be in danger of running into something further on down the road,” he said.

"A letter going in someone’s door, particularly at election time, some people might have thought it was election material…. and put it in the bin.”

He suggested it was important to get a “true picture” of the residents’ views rather than pressing ahead at this stage.

Sinn Féin Colr. Paul Boggs said that his party was very supportive of bringing in such facilities, but said that he had heard similar concerns with residents who were not necessarily objecting to the skate park, but “just wanted to know what is going into their back garden before everyone is doing a song and dance about it… what it actually is, how it is going to look for them.”

"The main thing people thought was that they they weren’t engaged with as much as they could have been.”

He suggested a meeting be set up with residents to discuss what it will entail.

SDLP Councillor Jason Barr concurred with the other speaking and said he too had been contacted by residents, but said he understood that residents would receive hand delivered letters in the time to come.

"As far as I know Council is going to engage with residents again. Residents will have another opportunity to engage with council.”

Sinn Féin Colr. Brian Harte said: “It’s very important the residents’ views are taken onboard because a similar exercise in Derry for a skateboard park fell through because the residents were against it.”

Karen Phillips, Director of Environment and Regeneration at Derry City and Strabane District Council, said the report had acknowledged “very limited engagement and feedback" in terms of the letter sent to residents. She said hat this would need to be very significantly “ramped up” if they were to proceed with design development.

"I’m more than happy to arrange for the team to undertake a further engagement with residents. I don’t think we are at this stage going to be able to tell them what it is going to look like, because that is the whole point of the design development process. However we can certainly meet with them and speak to them about any concerns they may have and take that on board and bring that back to members,” the director said.

UUP Alderman Derek Hussey said the supporters of the skatepark project need to be involved as well, because there will “probably an issue of perception people will have of who will be going along to use the skatepark”, adding that they can explain exactly what it involves to residents.

He added that low returns in consultation processes was nothing new.

Colr. Gallagher proposed a decision on the preferred location be deferred to allow for this engagement/ consultation work to go on behind the scenes, but Colr. Boggs queried whether this was actually necessary given the assurances of Council officers, and said he did not believe anyone was arguing against this being the location for it to regenerate this area.

Karen Phillips said they were happy to consider involving the skate park promoters in Strabane in that consultation, and bring back a further report to members to endorse this direction of travel.

Colr. Gallagher referred back to the original report, and said he was advocating a deferral given the number of responses were in single figures out of 90. He said bringing back a report following engagement would leave the council in a strong position they could stand over.

Colr. Harte said he believed deferring would hold up the process further rather than working in tandem.

Karen Phillips said a number of sites were considered and this site was more preferred than others and more design development and engagement would follow as a result. She added however that there would be opportunities down the line for members to consider and decide on whether to proceed with this option. “Engagement with residents has got to be front and centre,” she said.

Colr. Boggs cautioned against setting a precedent for going back again and again and again in terms of engagement or setting a particular level of engagement.

SDLP Colr. Brian Tierney said that given the assurances from the director, they would not be supporting the proposal to defer, while Independent Colr. Raymond Barr said he would be backing deferral.

"I’m fully supportive of a skate park in Strabane but we need to be seen to be doing the thing right.”

Colr. Gallagher said he was contented with the assurances given by the director that this was not ‘done and dusted’ and withdrew the proposal to defer in light of this.

Karen Phillips then said they hadn’t yet got any budget to develop the park, and said this would have to be discussed at a later stage.