A
s the sun shone on Derry during our spell of early summer, it was easy to be optimistic. The city looked good ‒ and not only because of the sunshine. Regeneration schemes are beginning to make a wonderful difference to the cityʼs appearance.
The riverfront on the city‑side is beginning to look as a riverside should, complete with an elegant walkway. Ebrington Barracksʼ parade ground is superb and the surrounding buildings will soon match it. The Guildhall renovation is progressing, while children jump around in the water fountains outside. And a glass dome over the Craft Village will provide a new dimension to the cityʼs offer.
Construction of a new hotel is underway. More are planned. Swarms of tourists drift across the cityʼs walls every day. Both St Columbʼs Cathedral and the First DerryPresbyterian Church stand bright and clean after the completion of major regeneration schemes.
Yes, the city is looking good. Yes, the promise is there. Yes, we are getting ready for 2013, City of Culture. And the programme of events is wonderful. We are increasingly optimistic that there will be vast numbers of visitors for our whole year in the sun. Yet the business community in Derry remains deeply worried. On the outside almost everything looks good, but this makes it even more essential that all the underlying weaknesses in our economy are corrected. These difficulties start with our retail sector. We have a terribly high rate of empty premises. One of our main thoroughfares has barely any shops still open.
As a Chamber, we have members who trade in the city centre and others who operate from the out‑of‑town shopping centres. We can see both sides of the city centre v. out of town argument.
But things have reached the point that unless there is a balance in development, there will be little viable city centre trading left. There has to be a brake now on new out‑of‑town developments. That is not enough, though. We need other initiatives. The Department for Social Development and the Department for Regional Development deserve genuine praise for the work they have done in recent weeks and months for improving our cityʼs public spaces and the transport infrastructure in and around the city. But we need more. Our city centre remains blighted by some very ugly buildings. Some of these should be demolished and others given new facades.
And our city will only thrive when we have adequate transport links ‒ especially with Belfast ‒ and a university presence that will give us the graduates and skills to create a dynamic economy. Amazingly we have employers that want to expand, but have enormous difficulty in finding people with the necessary skills for the modern economy. With Northern Ireland still very reliant on the public sector, our future also relies on us having dynamic public bodies that operate in a co‑ordinated and co‑operative way. While it is excellent that we have an urban regeneration company, Ilex, it has taken far too long to make progress with the two key former army sites of Ebrington and Fort George.
We have an agreed regeneration plan for the city ‒ the OnePlan ‒ but no effective delivery mechanism as yet for achieving some of its major objectives. It is great to have aspirations, but it is essential that these are converted into delivered outcomes. In short, this is the time for the public and private sectors to focus on improved delivery. To a significant extent, both public and private sector execution is dependent on ministerial decisions and actions. This includes further investment in the cityʼs public spaces and architectural excellence. The A6 road improvement programme needs to be accelerated. We need revised planning guidance on out‑of‑town centres. And funds must be found for the substantial expansion of university provision in the city. City of Culture 2013 will do many wonderful things for Derry. It will boost the earnings of companies and people. It will create a sense of optimism and ‒ we hope ‒ entrepreneurism. And it will be one hell of a party. But Derry needs even more if we are to create a sustainable and self‑ sufficient local economy. Thatis our main priority and it is in the interests of everyone in Northern Ireland. For that to be achieved, the infrastructure weaknesses that hold our city back must be corrected ‒ and urgently.
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