Council considering 'taking over events only' at Ebrington

A spokesperson for the Your Ebrington group,which is organising weekly protests in Ebrington Square in support of local people being consulted about what events should be held at the venue, has criticised the motion passed at yesterday's (Wednesday's) full Derry City and Strabane District Council.

They said: "At the full Council meeting (September 27, 2023), Sinn Fein's Christopher Jackson proposed a motion on Ebrington under matters arising. We were over the moon as the motion hadn't been listed as a priority for Councillors via the agenda.

"Whilst the motion itself appeared to be a positive step initially, further clarification from Cllr Jackson during the discussion showed the true intentions of the motion."

"During the discussion on the motion, Cllr Jackson clarified that, at this time, they were not proposing Council take on responsibilty for anything but events. He said it wasn't practically possible for Council to take ownership of the site at this time. This is the exact opposite of what the motion suggested and what people want to see."

"It is clear, from commentary by local councillors, that they all hold great aspirations for the Ebrington site. They believe, in theory, that Ebrington Square should be a great event space but they have absolutely no intentions of taking the responsibility of ownership on for a great many reasons.

"We genuinely thought that it would be councillors pushing Council Officers to do something they didn't want to do but it seemed to us that councillors were glad to be let off the hook by the ambiguity of the motion.

"We've heard great rhetoric in the past few weeks from politicians about how Ebrington is the 'Peoples Square' and the discussion and motion today could have brought us a step closer to that rhetoric becoming a reality. But sadly, that's not the case.

"The Square remains firmly in the hands of unelected civil servants in Belfast and we will be back in Ebrington protesting this Saturday at 2pm."