Derry Journal Editorial: The denial of Derry for university expansion must now be put right 60 years on

In a rare show of unity back then in 1965, nationalist and unionist leaders in Derry united to lead a protest and motorcade to Stormont following the publication of the Lockwood Report, which, on February 10 that year, recommended that a second university be located in Coleraine instead of Derry.

Almost 60 years on, that denial of Derry remains a festering wound, and it is disgraceful that it has taken until now to get to a point where it looks like there is, perhaps for the first time, alignment across the board on putting it right.

There will be understandable scepticism. Few can be in any doubt today that Derry was deliberately starved of investment and infrastructure over those six decades, and indeed the Minister Conor Murphy alluded to regional imbalance as he gave a commitment to stand over the expansion plan in the city this week.

The new report from the Taskforce under chairman Stephen Kelly is as impressive as it is pragmatic. There is a plan in place. There is money to start the process, and Mr Kelly has been clear too that 10,000 students is a new floor, not a ceiling.

There have been many false dawns with university expansion in this city. But this looks, reads and feels different and we have now, potentially, the right plan in the right hands to make it happen.