Communities Minister abandoning Derry's Foyle Street traders - Foyle MP claims

Traders in Derry’s Foyle Street are being abandoned, it has been claimed.

Local traders have seen a serious and sustained drop in footfall as a result of water infrastructure upgrades, Foyle MP Colum Eastwood said.

Mr Eastwood was speaking after the DUP Minister for Communities Gordon Lyons confirmed that he would be offering no support to traders affected by the disruption in spite of his move to provide support to traders in an area of Belfast affected by traffic disruption caused by the new £340m Grand Central Station. 

The former SDLP leader said: “Foyle Street is going to be closed to traffic for about a year overall as a result of critical water and sewage works. Businesses in the area have been clear that they’ve experienced a serious and sustained drop in footfall that has cost some up to 40% of their usual trade on busy weekend shopping days.

“It’s unbelievable that Gordon Lyons has decided that these Derry traders won’t receive a penny in support after reports that his Department is bringing forward £200,000 of investment to help businesses in Belfast’s Sandy Row area affected by infrastructure disruption. I don’t doubt the worthiness of that investment but it’s totally unacceptable that traders in Derry are essentially being told that they’re on their own.

“I’ll be asking the Minister of Finance to urgently intervene. This is the wrong call and it needs to be put right.”