Londonderry and Strabane city deals 'being reassessed'

Several major projects are proposed within the multi-million pound City Deal, which was announced back in 2019.

Some city deal projects aimed at regenerating Londonderry and Strabane have been reassessed because of rising costs, councillors have been told.

Several major projects are proposed within the £250m city deal, which was announced back in 2019.

They are designed to create jobs in a region with some of the highest unemployment rates in Northern Ireland.

But some may have to be "modified" or even "combined" due to the impact of inflation, an official has warned.

Strategic projects programme director Eamon Molloy told a special meeting of Derry and Strabane council on Wednesday that they had to carry out a "comprehensive re-analysis of all the key projects" because of inflation and rising costs.

City deal status gives local areas specific powers to help support economic growth and job creation.

What is in the city deal?

Some of the projects proposed in the deal for Derry and Strabane include:

• The creation of a medical school at Ulster University's Magee campus

• A centre for industrial digitisation, robotics and automation

• The establishment of a cognitive analytics research laboratory

• Healthcare innovation and research projects

• A digital programme to tackle connectivity issues across the region

• Redevelopment of Derry's riverfront

• Urban regeneration projects and environmental initiatives

• Redevelopment of Strabane town centre

• Infrastructure and tourism projects

Mr Molloy told councillors that within the interim period between the heads of terms for the city deal being signed and now, the council had been hit with "inflationary pressures and cost of living pressures".

This has resulted in some of the projects having to be "scaled, modified or combined to remain within the agreed funding envelope", he said.

"Essentially they all needed to be reassessed in their scope and their scale.

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At the meeting, councillors heard details of a plan to combine two projects into one.

Prof Brian Meenan, from Ulster University, discussed a shared facility which amalgamated both the centre for digitisation, robotics and automation with the proposed cognitive analytics research laboratory.

The proposed £39m facility would be located within Ulster University's Magee campus, opposite council offices on the Strand Road in Derry.

SMART Digital project

Another project discussed at the meeting was a digital programme to tackle connectivity issues across the council area.

The SMART Digital project is estimated to cost about £15m and will see the introduction of "digital-enabling infrastructure" across the city and district.

The proposal will help build a network that could see the introduction of smart parking spaces, which will see road users be able to view live availability of potential car parking spaces.

Members also heard that such a network could see the introduction of smart rainfall monitors in high-risk flooding areas.

This could help detect and prevent future flooding. Areas of the north west were badly impacted by flooding in both 2017 and 2022.

This isn't unique to the Derry City Deal. It also happened in the Belfast region City Deal as well, where they've had to look at exactly what they can deliver with their budget.

In simple terms, the £250m that was allocated to the Derry City Deal does not buy you as much today as it did back in 2021, when that budget was confirmed.

Because the rate of inflation is now slowing quite sharply, the overall price level in the economy is higher than it was then.

As time goes on, that £250 is worth less in real terms.

And one of the issues around City Deals is - they're not quick.