Note: First appeared as an article in the Derry Journal, October 2024.
Novelist Neil Hegarty asserts, in The Irish Times, that
This place (Northern Ireland) never made any ethical or economic sense – and Derry is the apotheosis of that wider failure.
Inadequate university provision is an instance of that failure.
In A Scandal in Plain Sight (Colmcille Press), Garrett Hargan writes:
Despite countless promises, plans and strategies, the decade 2010 to 2019 ended with an increase of fewer than 300 full-time students at Magee.
Students at the University of Ulster Magee (UU Magee) and the North West Regional College (NWRC) are welcome in the city. They bring a thirst for life and knowledge. They also bring cars.
Problems with parking plague the University Area. Some of the parking is thoughtless. Some is plain bad and illegal. Residents are afraid to use their cars for fear of not being able to return to their driveways. Access routes to schools and the doctor’s surgery are blocked. Delivery and drop-off points are compromised.
Furthermore, faced with the question: “where will our students live?”, rather than outlining plans for bespoke accommodation, the responsible agencies stand well back and rely on commercial interests.
Family homes are converted to Houses of Multiple Occupancy (HMOs), frequently not properly registered. Houses in the area bear the tell-tale keypad, facilitating Airbnb users. Young families struggle to find accommodation. Real estate values increase when the housing stock is converted to short-term occupancies. Laissez-faire development slurps up housing stock, building alongside detached and semi-detached houses, in blatant garden grabs.
People using prams leave the pavements, with primary school children in tow. People using wheelchairs, sticks, crutches or wheelers are impeded. I use a mobility scooter, due to amputations, as well as vascular and respiratory problems. Corners are blocked, so I can’t access the ‘dropped kerbs’ necessary to cross a road.
Residents welcome students, but feel ‘enough is enough’.
Social media platforms comment that people in the University Area should not act like NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard). They say: “this is just business”. I say: “this is very bad business for the university, the neighbourhood and the city.”
When did it become wrong to be concerned about your backyard?
Each time news of an increase in student numbers is announced, neighbours of the university search for news of accommodation and parking. When none appears, we know that the existing laissez-faire approach will intensify. The city suffers the public costs of pressure on services such as parking, sewage, water and refuse removal. Flooding on the Strand Road increases when green, soak-away areas are removed from the high ground of Rosemount.
The main-driver of congestion is expansion by UU Magee. What can we do?
Residents can call out unsanctioned developments, by notifying Derry City and Strabane District Council (DCSDC). We can support our neighbours objecting to a change to HMO and informing DCSDC. The Planning Portal on the DCSDC website is not easy to use, but we can phone to lodge an objection or write a short note and hand/post it in to the DCSDC office.
We can go with our neighbours to Planning Committee meetings in the Guildhall. This is an insulting experience, as the public cannot hear the discussions, due to an inadequate sound system. We can lobby councillors, especially ones on the Planning Committee, asking that they give attention to the needs of residents over developers and their agents.
We can support Glen Development Initiative (GDI), who are liaising between residents, DCSDC, UU Magee and the government-appointed Ulster University Magee Taskforce. The Taskforce published a welcome interim report and invited input from residents for its final report. Reliance on the private sector to handle student accommodation is not reassuring. The easiest option for commercial interests, often absentee landlords, is to accelerate HMO creation.
Councillors can get fully up to date on the best approaches to take when HMO congestion threatens a street. They can charge officials with overturning developments that do not meet planning and building regulations. Councillors can lobby for a tighter cap on the number of HMOs and guest houses per street.
Ten thousand students are not suddenly going to land, though that is the current aspiration. Some people say it should be higher, as the University makes the changes for which it can secure public money. Plans for accommodation need to tangibly synchronise with these aspirations.
UU Magee, as the major player, can decrease the pressure on congestion by combining each announcement of an increase in student numbers with accommodation and parking announcements. Green field sites can be considered for bespoke UU Magee developments.
The development behind the Tower Museum, at the foot of Magazine Street, is a good example of re-purposing. UU Magee has a relationship with the Inner City Trust (ICT), which could renovate derelict buildings as student housing, working alongside the Department, the Council, the Chamber of Commerce, Residents Associations and other groups.
UU Magee can move colleges and accommodations beyond the Magee site, including to the Waterside. Translink can move students around, offering reliable and safe late-night services.
Riverside sites are under consideration for development. The Fort George site may not be used for residential purposes, due to the toxicity of the ground following a stint as an Army base, while it may be considered for a health centre.
The area around UU Magee is changing. With the change driving in one direction, social problems follow. We don’t want students living in cars, as reported in Galway and Dublin. Or, as witnessed in Belfast’s Holyland, in an unregulated mono-culture of HMOs, which became a by-word for anti-social behaviour.
No one wants Derry to slide further into that situation.
Nerve Centre published Dave Duggan’s new collection of essays, Journeywork, a creative life, in November. Available in Little Acorns Bookstore, Great James Street, and other bookshops.
www.facebook.com/Dave DugganWriter
irishtimes.com
derryjournal.com
A Scandal in Plain Sight, book, Garrett Hargan, Colmcille Press, Derry, 2024
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