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Catherine McGinty, 28 Sep
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.
[INS: :INS]
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."