THE PEOPLE BEFORE PROFIT ALLIANCE today launched its Council election manifesto. The main demand of its manifesto is the abolition of ILEX, the urban regeneration company, in favour of more democratic control of the future of the City.
People Before Profit are standing four candidates for Derry City Council, Connor Kelly (Cityside), Colm Bryce (Northland), Davy McAuley (Waterside) and Diane Greer (Waterside Rural). Below are the candidates pictured with Assembly Candidate Eamonn McCann.

Candidate for Northland, Colm Bryce, said, “The recent review of ILEX, the first in its eight year history, was a damning indictment of a company that has not delivered on what it was tasked to do, despite using £21 million of public money on inflated salaries and other costs. The essential problem is that that ILEX was based on a flawed model of attracting multinational companies and propping up a property-speculation bubble. Then the recession hit and the property market collapsed. Yet ILEX still envisage this sort of development for Fort George.

“The vast rows of empty and unfinished office blocks along the Liffey in Dublin should be a salutary lesson to anyone who still clings to these pie-in-the-sky dreams. In the absence of attracting any development to the City for 8 years, ILEX has now immersed itself in the City of Culture project. There is a deep concern that ILEX view the City of Culture simply as a way of developing Ebrington, rather than encouraging the development of existing arts and cultural organisations in the City."