Sinn Fein back City Status

Sinn Féin have become the first political party to support City Status for Drogheda at their Ard Fheis.

The motion calling for City Status for Drogheda was submitted by the Bobby Sands Cuman and Cuman Members, Cllr Kenneth Flood and Deputy Imelda Munster proposed and seconded the motion at Sinn Féins 2017 Ard Fheis.

Cllr Kenneth Flood said: ‘I was honoured to propose and speak on this motion for Drogheda at our Ard Fheis. It is my opinion that local representatives have a duty to bring issues as important as this to their parties National Conference or Ard Fheisenna and to seek their parties support.

A report by Dr Brian Hughes, a lecturer in urban economics which was commissioned by the Drogheda City Status lobby group said that the

population of the municipal borough of Drogheda, along with the neighbouring rural areas of Louth and Meath, has increased by almost 80 per

cent over two decades, rising from 46,451 to 83,042 in the 2016 census. ‘We cannot administer an urban center with such a population with the powerless and fragmented local government we have at the moment,’ he said.

‘Drogheda was stripped of its Borough Council in 2014, we were denied our rightful place in the 2002 National Spatial Strategy, left out of the Living Cities Initiative in 2013 and now we seem to have been forgotten when it comes to the current Draft National Planning Framework . Drogheda needs City Status and A City Council to administer it.’