SDLP is to hold a breakfast event in Derry City Centre at the Maldron Hotel today at 1pm with MP Drew Hendry from the SNP as guest speaker.Representatives will attend the event from businesses, financial services, council, schools, higher education, the arts and others.
Guests will have the opportunity to question the guest speaker Drew Hendry MP and other panelists including the SDLP Leader Colum Eastwood MLA on how to deliver a City Deal that drives economic growth in Derry and Strabane.
Speaking ahead of the event, SDLP Leader Colum Eastwood said Derry deserves its “fair share now” and that the SDLP wanted the entire community to come together to “demand jobs for the North West.”
Mr Eastwood said: “For too long the North West has been completely side-lined by both the British Government and by the previous DUP/Sinn Fein led Executive.
“But rather than rehearse facts and figures about our economic challenges, the SDLP is up for the challenge of delivering economic change.
“But change won’t just happen, it demands action.
“That’s why the SDLP has brought together representatives from the business community, the arts, schools, higher education and others to help us deliver economic growth together.
“I’m delighted that SNP MP Drew Hendry will join us to explain how his city Inverness, a city with a population of just under 50,000, was awarded a City Deal amounting to an investment of over £315 million in a range of areas including skills, infrastructure and housing.
“Drew’s insight will equip us as local leaders to drive forward for Derry and Strabane.
“With the plan already developed as part of the Council’s Strategic Growth Plan and the work the SDLP has done to secure political commitments from the Prime Minister and others we know that a deal is within reach.
“The SDLP is also working closely with our partners in the South to develop and add to already existing plans to get more jobs, more opportunities and more development into the North West.
“We need to end the decades of regional inequality and deliver a prosperous new North West that takes our economy forward not backwards.
“It’s time Derry got its fair share, it’s time to demand jobs for the North West and it’s time that we all pulled together rather than part to boost our local economy,” added the Foyle MLA.
