Fastest growing European town gets keys to city

DESPITE its peripheral location, Letterkenny remains the fastest growing town in Europe over the past five years.

A strong dynamic relationship with neighbouring Derry is a contributory factor in the Donegal town’s elevation to city status.

The National Spatial Strategy envisages a linked gateway between the two cross-border centres which will benefit the entire north-west.

Officially, Letterkenny’s population within its administrative urban boundary is 14,000 but over 25,000 live within the town’s environs. A revision of the urban boundary is an immediate priority for the local authority. Junior minister Jim McDaid described as phenomenal his home town’s rapid development and population growth in recent years.

Decentralisation of a Government department and huge overseas industrial investment helped to reinforce the unprecedented growth, he said.

“The announcement is a cause for celebration, but, unquestionably, the town has major infrastructure problems,” he said.

“We don’t have a train service and the nearest air link is across the border. It’s crucial the primary road network to Letterkenny the N2 is completed.”

Letterkenny, meanwhile, is home to the regional hospital which employs 1,000 people, the Department of Social and Family Affairs, an Institute of Technology with over 2,000 full-time students, several US-owned IT firms and a polyester yarn factory Unifi which between them employ over 1,500.

Director of the Letterkenny Institute of Technology, Paul Hannigan said the college, established 25 years ago, was a major player in the town’s success.

Within the past years, the college’s student population increased by 500 to break the 2,000 barrier. The college’s links with the University of Ulster’s Magee College in Derry, also underlines the cross-border relationship.

Mr Hannigan said there was increasing confidence in the local community and economy which was reflected in the significant investment by the private and public sectors and reinforced by overseas backing through the presence of companies such as Pru American and Pacific Care.

The Government’s strategy focuses firmly on Letterkenny’s future being developed in association with Derry, which is Ireland’s fourth-largest city.

Earlier this year, the North’s regional development strategy, in a document called Shaping Our Future, identified Derry’s role as a major regional city for the north-west.

Terry McEniff Mayor of Letterkenny said the local council’s draft development plan, about to be unveiled, focused on major infrastructure developments to cement the town’s planned new city gateway status.

“Our mains infrastructure has reached saturation levels and despite current public constraints capital spending will have to be made available to reverse the infrastructure deficit,” said local hotelier Mr McEniff.