By 
CAMPAIGN group, Strabane Greenways are demanding that Derry City and Strabane District Council must get planning for section one of the Strabane to Sion Mills greenway ‘over the line’ this year.
The local group was set up in 2023 to address the lack of greenways and green spaces in Strabane.
Spokesperson Daithí McKay this week emphasised that a planning application is vital if the greenway is to avail of ‘active travel’ funding.
“For the past two and a half years we’ve been working with Derry City and Strabane District Council officers to help make the vision for the Strabane to Sion Mills greenway a reality,” he said.
“The contributions from council officers and councillors has been outstanding and we are now at a point were stage one of this project – Melvin to Sigersons GAA club – can be prepared so that we can potentially avail of active travel funding from the Department of Infrastructure next year. Key to that is submitting an application to planning for this section of the greenway.
“Much of the work on this has already been done. We had an extremely successful public consultation event at Melvin Sports Centre last year and it was clear from that engagement that local people want to see this project delivered.
“We cannot afford to see any slippage in 2026 on this keystone project for Strabane. The dearth of green spaces and greenways in this town compared to Derry City has been well documented before and that has obvious public health impacts for this community that cannot be ignored.
“Families in this town are entitled to the same quality of greenspaces that can be seen in Derry and Strathfoyle and there is a lot of work to be done to address this obvious imbalance.”
