Sinn Féin councillor claims Rosemount Factory Community Wealth Building Model ‘seriously in doubt’

The Concerned Residents Around Magee (CRAM) campaign has said it welcomed the decision by Sinn Féin not to put forward a motion supporting plans for the redevelopment of Rosemount Factory.

The issue was discussed at Monday’s reconvened March plenary of Derry City and Strabane District Council. 

Several members of CRAM watched the meeting from the public gallery of the Guildhall’s Council Chamber.

An ambitious plan for the redevelopment of Rosemount Factory, including the addition of  100 student accommodation units, had been presented to Council’s Governance and Strategic Planning (GSP) committee on March 3, 2026.

A Sinn Féin proposal the Committee should endorse the plan was subsequently withdrawn at the meeting following concerns voiced by Cllr Brian Tierney (SDLP) and Cllr Shaun Harkin (PBP). On that occasion, Cllr Christpher Jackson said he would bring the proposal forward again at Full Council.

However, speaking at Monday’s meeting, Cllr Jackson revealed it was now his party’s understanding there had been what he described as “significant developments”.

“We have been in constant contact with a number of community groups in the area,” he said.

“What we are led to believe is the Community Wealth Building Model for this project is seriously in doubt and there are other proposals that are being discussed that aren’t led by the community,” he added.

“From our perspective, we believe, for this project in particular, the community sector is best placed to help shape and build our communities, to develop our communities for the betterment of the entire area and to take into consideration the views of local residents, and that was the ethos of our proposal initially. 

“We now believe this project could potentially move forward with less input from the community sector and more of an ethos or emphasis on the private sector.

“And until we see what that final proposal is looking like … the information we have received is that the presentation presented at committee is no longer the proposal that is on offer, so we won’t be making the proposal today and we wait in anticipation for what the proposal coming forward from the private sector will look like.

“It is extremely disappointing that the community-led project has fallen at this stage, or seems to have fallen,” said Cllr Jackson.

Cllr Brian Tierney (SDLP) said since the GSP meeting his party had met with CRAM, individual residents and Foyleside Developments and attended a public meeting held in Brooke Park.

“That has informed our position here today,” said Cllr Tierney. “As I came away from the public meeting last Tuesday night, it was very clear to me, the people and organisations who have now formed Foyleside Developments did not engage appropriately, in my opinion, with those in and around the Rosemount area.”

Addressing the meeting, Cllr Shaun Harkin (PBP) said he wanted first to place on record “in relation to Cllr Jackson’s statement the building would be taken forward now by private owners” that he had “attempted to meet with the owners of the building”.

“They told me I needed to go and meet with Foyleside Developments and that they were unwilling to have a conversation with me, which I found extremely frustrating,” said Cllr Harkin.

“I actually found it alarming,” he added, “that a public representative in the area was not going to be afforded the time by the owners of the building to have a conversation about their plans and I was to be sent elsewhere.”

Cllr Shauna Cusack (Independent) thanked the members of CRAM for attending the meeting.

She added: “This shows how you as residents and people who are concerned about the future of the factory feel, the strength of your feeling. You have actually made the effort to come here and sit in front of us and be listened to, and that is the one thing I took away massively from the public meeting was ‘We want to be listened to. We want to be consulted’.

“The people of the area haven’t been or don’t feel they have been adequately.

“We now have the space to think where we should go with this and I think Council has a big role to play on that in consulting with the community, with the city to see what best it could be used for, but definitely not student accommodation, that would be an insult to it,” said Cllr Cusack

Speaking to The Derry News, a CRAM spokesperson said it welcomed Sinn Féin’s decision “not to put forward a motion to support plans for the redevelopment of Rosemount Factory by GDI [Glen Development Initiative] and its Outerwest partners”.

“While CRAM supports the initiative to see the iconic factory brought back to community use, it objected strongly to the inclusion in the plans for housing of 100 students,” added the spokesperson.

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“The Rosemount Factory is an incredibly important building to all of the people in the city. 

“Its redevelopment needs to happen with transparency and open discussion with local residents as to how to best use it. 

We have precious few historic buildings left with connections to the shirt industry which was so important to Derry’s past. 

“Putting 100 students into this iconic building is not good for the local area and does not have widespread support amongst residents,” said the spokesperson.

CRAM has also called on Derry City and Strabane District Council to “consult with residents and stakeholders to explore what pathways may exist to bring the building back into community use and to preserve this landmark building for the betterment of Derry city and its residents”.