Residents fear ‘ghettoisation’ of ‘hotspot’ streets around Derry's Magee campus

Following a protest rally in Derry’s Guildhall Square, Concerned Residents Around Magee (CRAM) urged councillors to introduce “an immediate 10% cap on all HMOs (Houses of Multiple Occupancy) around Ulster University’s Magee campus”.
CRAM representatives Kathleen Feeney and Stella O’Donnell made the call during their presentation to Council’s Governance and Strategic Planning committee on Tuesday afternoon; they were accompanied by a number of supporters in the public gallery.
Ms Feeney explained that CRAM was an active community group made up of residents representing the streets around Magee - the hotspots zones one to seven.
She said: “CRAM was established in response to lived experiences of the consequences of oversaturation of HMOs in streets around Magee, some already exceeding 30%, including student accommodation, bedsits, bed and breakfasts, hostels, guest houses and houses let to lodgers. We are a group which supports local residents.
“After lobbying and requests, CRAM has recently been invited to engage with Derry City and Strabane District Council but engagement is not enough. CRAM fears further ghettoisation of the streets around Magee and the creation of a Derry Holylands.”
Ms Feeney was referring to the Holylands in Belfast, a residential area near Queen’s University which houses a large number of students in HMOs and became notorious in recent years for its high level of anti-social activity.
Stella O’Donnell explained CRAM had been formed “to address the rapidly changing character of our residential areas.
“Our priority as residents and voters is to make you, our Council, hear our united voices,” she added.
“We are residents that have had to quickly get organised and become informed on areas relating to the planned detrimental changes via the Local Development Plan 2032 (LDP) coming to our streets. Parts of which, it seems, our Council has tried to quickly and quietly rubber stamp.
“We have read in papers and heard on the radio how different agencies have been engaging with residents. Well, we are those residents and we can assure you that level of engagement is not happening. We have had zero feedback or information from the Council, the Taskforce or Ulster University that has not been initiated by CRAM.
“Residents should be involved directly in conversations, plans and proposals being made on our behalf and alongside the Council. We reject the view that our claims are perceived and not reality.
“Our claims are lived experience and as you will know from the recent Plan for Neighbourhoods from Westminster, no-one knows the priorities of the community better than those who live and work there.”
The CRAM representatives appealed for Derry City and Strabane District to act immediately and “adopt a 10% HMO managed area cap” in the first seven hotspot areas identified in its own HMO study.
Ms O’Donnell said: “This cap needs to be adopted immediately as the flexibility and uncertainty of the transition period is already being floated.
“It is imperative that the current gold rush of developers taking advantage of our Council’s lack of policies is stopped. Advice from corporate planners to take refused applications to the Planning Appeals Commission (PAC), as there is a high approval success rate, further demonstrates a weakness in the planning system.
“Our 10% cap priority concerns the preservation of our historic, sustainable and balanced communities through ongoing representation of our neighbours, your constituents, who from our campaigning are more informed, asking more questions around the plans for the area, and wanting answers from those that represent them. Many residents are despondent by the Council’s lack of transparency and engagement; the continued approvals of HMOs and character-changing developments - including flat conversions, guest houses, bed and breakfasts, Airbnbs, in our already extremely dense residential area, where house are separated only by a single brick, is causing immense stress and anxiety to residents.”
The CRAM representatives also highlighted that the “transient nature of HMOs” meant there was a noticeable difference in the upkeep of short-term rented accommodation compared to privately owned properties.
Ms Feeney added: “[This] results in daily experience of squalor, litter, rubbish, fly-tipping, bodily fluids, dereliction, neglect of houses and gardens, street blight, letting boards - often by the same developers and the same estate agents - fly-posting and security grills.
“Parts of our area are descending into slums. These consequences fly in the face of conservation guidance and principles in the documents ‘Magee Conservation Area’ and ‘Clarendon Street Conservation Area,” said Ms Feeney.
Thanking CRAM for the presentation, Cllr Grace Uí Niallais (Sinn Fein) credited her colleague Cllr Patricia Logue with insisting Council included a HMO policy in its LDP.
“Every HMO application that comes through the committee, we are supporting you and listening to you,” added Cllr Uí Niallais.
Cllr Shaun Harkin (People Before Profit) commended the residents’ group for getting organised.
“We as a Council have to make sure the Taskforce and Ulster University and others fully engage in a way that actually creates solutions and people don’t feel it is a box ticking exercise,” he said.
Cllr Harking also drew attention to traffic congestion in the CRAM area; the perception the planning process favours the applicant over the objector; and the “flouting of the HMO planning process by applicants”.
Alderman Derek Hussey (UUP) questioned why Ulster University was not providing its own student accommodation in Derry as it was doing in Belfast.
“It is not happening in Londonderry and it is an absolute disgrace that is not happening,” he said. “Where is the university living up to its responsibilities?”
“[CRAM] attends the University Community Forum and what I am hearing is it is lip service from the University you are getting,” said Ald Hussey.
Cllr Rory Farrell (SDLP) said the expansion of Magee was going to be a “massive economic generator” but it needed to be done in “in a manner in which existing communities and the existing character of neighbourhoods are preserved and protected. We do not want to see another Holylands in Derry”.
Cllr Gary Donnelly (Independent) said while Derry needed the expansion of the university, the surrounding community also needed to be treated with respect.
“One of the planning concerns that keeps coming up is that the Local Development Plan Policy HOU 13 talks about how, within designated HMO Management Areas, HMOs will not be permitted to exceed 30% of all dwelling units within the policy area.
“Outside these HMO Management Areas, planning will only be granted for HMO development where the number of HMOs does not exceed 10% of dwelling units on that road or street in the transition period until the LDP Local Policies Plan is adopted Council will not permit more than 30% of any of the houses within any street to be granted further HMO development.
“So my query is, it took 10 years to get the adoption of LDP, what is the timeframe for completing the Local Policies Plan so that residents effectively can be provided with some surety?”
Council’s Director of Environment and Regeneration informed the meeting it would be 18 months to two years before the Local Policies Plan would be completed.
Kathleen Feeney responded that CRAM did not want to wait 18 months. She added: “We want you to look after our areas as valuable parts of Derry City. Historical, beautiful, valuable parts of Derry city.”