Derry & Strabane call for sister City Deals to be unpaused: 'We’re not taking the attitude of ‘we’re okay Jack, you sort yourself out’

Speaking at a special meeting hours after the signing of the agreement at Derry’s Guildhall, SDLP Councillor Brian Tierney stressed: “We’re not taking the attitude of ‘we’re okay Jack, you sort yourself out’.”

Some Derry City and Strabane District Council members meanwhile cautioned at the meeting that the City Deal will not fix the underlying issues of poverty and inequality.

A Special Full Council Meeting was called for Wednesday, September 18, following the British Government’s temporary pausing of the City Deals last Friday. Derry & Strabane’s City Deal however was then unpaused over the weekend and the signing of the financial agreement for its City Deal went ahead as planned on Wednesday morning. While it is believed Belfast’s City Deal will also go ahead, two others for the neighbouring Causeway Coast and Glens area and the Mid South region in the north remain are being frozen ahead of the UK government’s Spending Review.

At the Council meeting which followed the signing in Derry, SDLP councillor Brian Tierney proposed writing to the Secretary of State, Hilary Benn, criticising the “awful handling” of the initial announcement.

The motion also called for the Government to reinstate the Growth Deals for both Mid South West region and Causeway Coast and Glens, which remain on pause since Friday.

Councillor Tierney said the signing of the Deal on Wednesday morning, which will see £290 million of investment into the city and district, was the culmination of years of hard work by council officers.

He said: “Hopefully our city and district is about to see the benefits of their hard work over many years, and the signing of the financial deal today is only the foundation.”

“We have a lot more that we have to pursue, so we’re going to push on and build a better future for the young people across the city and district.

“We [also] need Causeway Coast and Glens to get their deal over the line and we’re not taking the attitude of ‘we’re okay Jack, you sort yourself out’, we’re here to do whatever we can to support them.”

People Before Profit councillor Shaun Harkin warned that it was premature to describe the City Deal as “the beginning of a new dawn for Derry”.

He said: “When I looked at the platform today, I saw representatives from institutions that have failed this place for a hundred years and continue to fail it today.

“Representatives who have slashed the Winter Fuel Payment, who justify taking away Holiday Hunger Payments, and have justified doing nothing about the two -child limit on Universal Credit that puts so many of our families into poverty.

“We have to be careful of what we’re telling people is going to happen as a result of the City Deal.

“We should keep the champagne on hold until we’ve done something about the disgraceful child poverty statistics in this city, until we’ve done something about the fact that Derry has the lowest pay of all council districts in the UK, and until we’ve done something about the fact that the size of the University [in Derry] right now is more or less the same size as it was in 2015.

“Our rail is run on second -hand tracks and the whole rail network is still completely unfit for purpose so until we can say, ‘look, we’ve done something about child poverty and the infrastructure in this city’, I don’t think that we can be saying it’s a new dawn.

“This is raising expectations in a way that doesn’t actually fit with the day-to-day experience in Derry and it’s not good enough just to have sparkling buildings, we actually have to do something about the poverty and the inequality that many people experience.”

Independent councillor Paul Gallagher did not support councillor Tierney’s motion as it “sent out the wrong message to our ratepayers”.

Councillor Gallagher added: “When [councillor Tierney] says about the ‘we’re alright, Jack’ attitude, if he reached out to the ratepayers of this district they’d say, ‘we haven’t been alright, and we haven’t been for many, many years’.”

“When millions were going to Coleraine that should have been coming in the Derry City for over 60 years, when we had to pay for our own airport repairs, when you see £350 million going to a bus stop in Belfast with us having one train, we weren’t alright, Jack.

“We are here to represent our ratepayers, first and foremost.”

UUP Alderman Derek Hussey agreed that there had been a “shameful forgetting” of the north west region, but argued that the Deal should be used as the groundwork for future investment and improvement.

“This is a pump primer that will encourage other investment to address the issues of low pay and social issues mentioned by the previous two speakers,” Alderman Hussey said. “So let’s get on with it.”

“Let’s get this deal on the ground, and let’s work together with others to improve and embellish a fantastic deal for this City and District.”

A statement issued on behalf of the Mid South West Region Growth Deal Partners said they were “shocked and disappointed to have received news that the funding previously committed by the UK Government for a Growth Deal for our region has been ‘paused’ and is now subject to the outcome of the Spending Review.”

"Significant resource has been invested by the Councils and our partners to date in developing a suite of transformative infrastructure, innovation, tourism, regeneration and green energy projects which will drive the long-term economic growth of the region and we must continue at pace to build on this work," they said.

Andrew Balfour,

Local Democracy Reporter