50 new jobs to be created as new £70m Strabane pipe factory is green lit

Derry City and Strabane District Council put through plans for the new industrial unit within Invest NI’s Strabane Business Park at a meeting of the Council’s Planning Committee on Thursday, November 30.

The application detailed plans for the ‘major development’, which includes a manufacturing area, training areas, meeting rooms, staff canteens and parking spaces.

A Council officer said consultations with governmental bodies, such as the Department for Infrastructure and NI Water, were concluded with no objections, and during a public consultation exercise there were no objections from the public.

The officer said Fab Plus, who already has a location at Strabane’s Orchard Road Estate, will provide long term sustainable economic benefit, as it has been in operation for 35 years and exports goods to the UK and Europe.

A Fab Plus spokesperson said the new premises will ‘make a positive contribution to the local economy and deliver much-needed investment into the area’.

Sperrin Independent District Councillor Paul Gallagher said the new plant was ‘long-awaited’, as the Council had been ‘crying for years for this site to get occupied.’

Sperrin SDLP District Councillor Jason Barr said: ‘This is a great news story, especially for this business park. It has been lying empty now for quite a considerable amount of years, so it’s great that it’ll be utilised for the benefit of Strabane and create 50 local jobs.’

Andrew Balfour,

Local Democracy Reporter