Sustainable funding rethink needed for Derry and Strabane community groups

Council representatives have warned that long-term, sustainable funding is needed for the local voluntary and community sector.

Members attending April’s Health and Community Committee were asked to approve three months’ funding for several Community Development Programme Areas for Quarter 1 of the 2026/27 financial year, including community support salary costs, social supermarkets, community centre costs, and Foyle Search and Rescue.

Head of Community Development and Leisure, Barry O’Hagan, noted that while the receipt of a letter from the Communities Minister on the Interim Funding Position for 2026-27 will allow for the continued delivery of the ‘key community development programmes’ up until June 30, 2026, the uncertainty around budget and allocations, and the absence of a Letter of Offer remains a ‘concern and a challenge’.

Sinn Féin councillor Paul Boggs proposed approval of the funding, but said he ‘would be happier if we were in a position where we had a multi-year budget’.

“We had a recent session with the Local Growth Partnership in Strabane about the ongoing review of neighbourhood renewal, and a very strong feature was that three-month cycles of funding are not a sustainable position for anybody as an employee and as a human being,” he added.

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“These are the people that are the backbone of our communities, who are providing services; ending violence against women and girls, social supermarkets.

“Our community-run organisations are always having a grey cloud of ‘what is the next three months?’ I think it again highlights the need for this place to be funded at need.”

People Before Profit councillor Shaun Harkin said the three month budgets were ‘frustrating’ and ‘unacceptable’, while SDLP councillor Brian Tierney argued that it were ‘cruel’ to workers due to a lack of job security.

Councillor Tierney said: “I couldn’t imagine the anxiety that not only the employee but their family face, so whilst it’s good to see money going out and those services being allowed to continue, some type of better system to allow these to roll out properly and hit the need that they’re supposed to will be much more welcome.”

UUP alderman Derek Hussey said the lack of multi-year budgets has been an issue since before the merging of the Derry and Strabane councils in 2015.

He concluded: “When you don’t have a multi-year budget you cannot offer a continuity of employment to folk, who are producing and working within programmes there.

“And if you haven’t got that continuity of staff within particular areas you haven’t got a continuity of planned programming, which is the ultimate purpose.

“The issue of a multi-year budget is one which is affecting all levels of government, whether it be local, regional, and it has to be addressed going forward.”