Foyle Sinn Féin MLA Martina Anderson has hit out after the Department for Social Development confirmed that over £1million has been spent on a ‘landmark development' site planned for Foyle Street which will now not go ahead

"The Department announced - amid much fanfare - in 2006 that the former City Hotel site in Foyle Street would be transferred into a 'landmark development that will set new standards' for the city," Ms. Anderson commented.

"Since then we have seen absolutely no progress and I raised the matter with the then Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie in the summer of 2008 when I was assured that work would begin by the end of the year.

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"The Department stated that this site would become an 'iconic flagship development' which would help regenerate the entire city. But more than two years later, there has still been absolutely no progress and that is completely unacceptable," she continued, "I again raised the issue with the new Social Development Minister Alex Attwood and called on him to deliver some progress on this development. In a written response to a question I raised at the Assembly it has now been revealed that over £1million has been spent on this site over the past 10 years and now we are being told that the iconic development promised by Margaret Ritchie will not be going ahead. Instead, the site will be landscaped to provide a small urban park together with 50 car parking spaces."

The minister said she recognises the need for additional car parking in the city but this site was billed as a "key regeneration opportunity" for the city.

"It is an indictment of the DSD that it has lain empty now for well over a decade. This has been a scandalous waste of over £1million of public money over the last ten years with nothing to show for it," she concluded.

(GK/KMcA)