Council’s month of climate action

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November marked a month of climate action for Derry and Strabane with a series of events highlighting environmental issues and the action being taken locally to combat them.

The risks of severe weather such as flooding, storms, heatwaves, ice and snow, plus practical advice on how to prepare for them, were discussed at two pop-up roadshows in Foyleside Derry and Asda Strabane.

Derry City and Strabane District Council officers and resilience specialists provided information on measures to protect people, homes and communities in the event of severe weather emergencies.

Making homes more energy efficient was also a focus, as well as the appropriate contacts to have to hand in an emergency situation, depending on the type of severe weather event and local impact.

A full digital campaign coincided with the roadshows to broaden the reach across the City and District.

Meanwhile, Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District, Alderman Graham Warke led a delegation to the Glasgow Food and Climate Declaration Food Systems event taking place during the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26).

The Council also showcased some of its recent initiatives promoting food sustainability, including the launch of the Sustainable Food Places network, a growing collaboration between local food producers and manufacturers.

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Zero carbon buses herald ‘cleaner, greener era’

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Derry will become one of the first cities in the UK and Ireland to have a fully zero-emission bus fleet after funding of £30million was announced for greener public transport.

The Foyle Metro network is set to receive 38 zero-emission battery electric buses, which will all go into passenger service in 2023, Infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon has announced.

The minister revealed the plans during a virtual address to the United Nations COP26 Global Climate Conference in Glasgow last month at an event hosted by Translink.

She said: “I am committed to building a better future where we make zero/low emission public transport accessible to communities across the North.” Minster Mallon added that the new buses would “herald a new cleaner and greener era in transport for the city and will make a positive impact on the climate emergency and help enhance air quality”.

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Letterkenny named as new Technological University

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Students will soon be able to go to university in Letterkenny after Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris TD announced that an application from Galway-Mayo, Sligo and Letterkenny Institutes of Technology had been successful.

This is the fourth Technological University to be created since 2019 and represents a milestone in higher education provision for the West and North West, providing for the establishment early next year of a multi-campus university presence across the North West region.

Students graduating in the 2021-2022 academic year will do so with university qualifications.

Donegal TD Joe McHugh said: “This is a really significant development and will undoubtedly have massive benefits for our whole region. This will create stronger regional growth in the North West, and will further encourage the development of our close cross-border links here in Donegal.”

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Magee unveils new manufacturing and engineering degree apprenticeship

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Ulster University is partnering with Manufacturing & Engineering Growth & Advancement (MEGA) to provide Northern Ireland’s first degree-level apprenticeship in Manufacturing & Engineering.

This first-of-its-kind course, funded by the Department for the Economy, is now underway and represents a new chapter in higher education for the Magee campus.

This new offering aims to create a pipeline of skilled talent fit for industry’s needs now and into the future, ensuring Northern Ireland is in a position to maximise the opportunities presented by the fourth industrial revolution.

An alternative to the traditional degree route, it will see apprentices employed from day one. This means participants incur no cost in their higher-level education; in fact, they earn a salary.

Robotics, artificial intelligence and digitalisation will be among the key themes studied within the new programme offered by the School of Computing, Engineering and Intelligent Systems at Magee.

Apprentices who train at Magee will also benefit from access to Centres of Excellence such as the Centre for Industrial Digitalisation, Robotics and Automation (CIDRA) and the Cognitive Analytics Research Laboratory (CARL) that are being developed as part of the emerging Derry and Strabane City Deal, and which will become a destination for Research and Development for industry partners.

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Mayor welcomes The Honourable The Irish Society

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Members of grant-giving charity The Honourable Irish Society have met with Council officials to hear about the progress of the City Deal.

The Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, Alderman Graham Warke, and Council representatives met the delegation in the Guildhall and also discussed the region’s growing Fintech cluster, and plans for Ebrington and Fort George. 

During the visit, hosted by the Londonderry Chamber of Commerce, the group also visited C-TRIC (the Clinical Translational Research and Innovation Centre), the new Visit Derry Visitor Information Centre, and North West Regional College’s Springtown Campus.

Mayor Warke said: “It’s vitally important that we continue to strengthen the unique relationship that our city and district has with The Irish Society and the City of London, and I was delighted to discuss many of the exciting projects and opportunities that are developing within this region.”

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City of London delegation meets Derry Strabane City Deal partners

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Representatives from the City of London Corporation met with key City Deal partners during a visit to Derry.

During the trip, the group of senior officials met with the Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, Alderman Graham Warke, and representatives from the local education and business sectors.

The London delegation spoke with students involved in the region’s first professional financial services qualification (Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment), delivered to post-primary students, while financial services company FinTrU outlined the continued expansion of their sector in the North West.

City Deal Innovation leads also shared key objectives and took the visitors – who included the City of London Corporation’s Chairperson of Policy and Resources Committee, Catherine McGuinness, and Head of UK Partnerships Andrew McGowan – on a tour of Ulster University’s new School of Medicine at Magee.

Mayor Warke, said: “The City of London delegation during their visit got a unique insight into the key role our region is playing in the success of UK financial services and how the City Deal investment in research and innovation, particularly big data analytics and AI, will drive our regional economy.”

Meanwhile, Mayor Warke also travelled to London last month to attend the installation of the incoming Lord Mayor of the City of London Corporation, Alderman Vincent Keaveny. Mayor Warke said it was a “huge honour” to be invited to the ceremony and Derry City and Strabane District Council was committed to further building the close relationship between the two cities, including work, cultural, business, educational and tourism linkages.

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Scone-sational! Derry café’s scones named best in NI

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Derry’s Cottage Café is celebrating after its home-baked scones were named the best in Northern Ireland.

The thatched roofed café, in the city’s historic Craft Village, beat more than 100 other hotels, restaurants and cafes to win the hotly-contested title from the Dairy Council of Northern Ireland.

Michelle Devine from the Cottage Café, who bakes the scones from scratch in a variety of sweet and savoury flavours, entered the competition after a customer told her about it.

“I knew the judges liked our scones when they came around to try them but there were so many other great places in for it, I never thought we had a chance. But then when they called out our name I nearly exploded!” she said.

Michelle, who learned how to make scones from watching her mother bake, said the key to a delicious scone is to go easy on the mixture.

“To me, it’s all in the way you do it and having the oven at the right temperature. There’s not really much else to it,” she revealed.

The Cottage also won the Best Cafe category in the competition, while Patricia’s Coffee House on the Quay was one of five finalists for best cafe.

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Celebrity chef enjoys a taste of LegenDerry

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The North West’s LegenDerry food scene has been showcased in a new online travel series.

Chef Randy Lewis, who describes himself as the ‘Phileas Fogg of food’, met with local chefs, brewers and producers to sample the fantastic dishes and drinks created in the City and surrounding areas.

Randy’s LegenDerry Adventure sees Lewis discover what makes the LegenDerry food scene so special; from Lo & Slo sauces and Dart Mountain cheeses, to fresh catch from fishmonger Moore on the Quay and Mekong Street Food’s Asian-inspired dishes.

The chef, who runs the Randaddy’s restaurant in Co Clare, also tried out some unique local experiences including paddleboarding along the River Foyle with Far and Wild adventures.

All four episodes are available to watch on YouTube, social media and on RTE.ie. You can catch the first instalment here.

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Derry bookstore crowned regional bookshop of the year

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Little Acorns Bookstore in Derry has been named Regional Bookshop of the Year at The An Post Irish Book Awards. 

Established in 2011, Little Acorns Bookstore has an overall stock of more than 40,000 books and specialises in Irish-related subjects, authors and publishers. 

The Foyle Street shop was named Ulster winner of the competition, with the other regional prizes awarded to Kennys Bookshop in Galway, The Company of Books in Dublin, Kerr’s Bookshop in Cork and The Maynooth Bookshop in Kildare.

Jenni Doherty, owner of Little Acorns Bookstore said: “I really am totally shocked, I feel so, so honoured and this is as much for the wonderful folks of Derry and Donegal who have ensured I kept going through the pandemic. They have all shown me fantastic support and loyalty and are all legends.”

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Council secures £16m for Levelling Up projects

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Three local redevelopment projects have received a £16m boost as part of the UK-wide Levelling Up Fund.

The funding has been secured by the Council to progress with Derry’s Daisyfield Community Sports Hub (which received £4.2m), the Acorn Farm St Columb’s Park Regeneration project (£5.6m), and Derg Active in Castlederg (£6.4m).

A total of £4.8 billion in government Levelling Up Funding was announced across the UK, with Derry City and Strabane District Council receiving a third of Northern Ireland’s £49m allocation.

Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council Alderman Graham Warke described the funding decision as “a really positive good news story for our Council area”.

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