Londonderry: Derry Eden Project plans to be reconsidered
- Published
It had been hoped the project as orginally proposed could create around 170 jobs
Multimillion-pound plans for a Northern Irish version of the Eden Project in Londonderry are being reconsidered, the team behind the project has said.
The £67m Eden Project Foyle had been first mooted in 2018.
It had included plans for walled gardens, tree-top and floating walkways and a water activity centre on a 250-acre site beside the River Foyle.
As first reported by The Derry Journal, external, plans will now proceed with a "more modest and phased approach".
"Clearly the current macroeconomic context is not conducive to the feasibility or affordability of a project of this scale and ambition," Eamonn Deane of the Foyle River Gardens (FRG) said.
In conjunction with the Eden Project in Cornwall, FRG, a charitable trust that would have operated the Derry site, had hoped to secure investment of around £70m for the project.
The plans included tree-top and floating walkways and a water activity centre and zipwires
FRG said those plans have been hampered by the global economic downturn and pressures on public expenditure.
They are also point to difficulties with "regional decision making".
Mr Deane added: "In conjunction with our strategic partners the Eden Project, we will want to consider options, based on a more modest and phased approach but with the ultimate goal of enhancing the environmental amenity in the north-west."
In 2020 FRG and the Eden Project International said the project would create around 170 jobs and support a further 2000 plus jobs locally when open.
They said Eden Project Foyle would become "a beacon of cultural tourism and a community asset helping to drive social, economic and environmental regeneration" that would be worth £62m to the local economy annually.
The Eden Project in Cornwall opened near St Austell in 2001 and attracts around 1m visitors annually.
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