Businesses in the town of Ennis are divided over the decision to lift temporary pedestrianisation but remain stalwart on the lack of adequate parking spaces to be found within the town.
Peter Moylan of Ennis Cash Company stressed that it was a big welcome at just the right time for the 140-year-old establishment. He added that it would be interesting to see the affect that COVID restrictions as well as the elimination of car parking spaces has had on businesses.
“We have felt semi-strangled here all along as our much more mature market are dependent on cars. They don’t want to walk long distances or carry sizeable items. Every single day pedestrianisation is continued here is horrible.” he admitted. Moylan said the decision to scrap pedestrianisation was “the best news I’ve had all year”.
Sharing his disappointment on the Taskforce’s decision was Tadg Collins of Collins Jewellers on O’ Connell Street. He asserted that business owners must share the same opinion as their customer, noting that all of his customers have loved the temporary measures that have enabled pedestrians to move with much more freedom.
“In September, when schools are back and three of them are out on lunch, how does a lady with a buggy get up the town along the narrow footpaths when car access is limited. In a business, customers are always right and none of mine have complained about pedestrianisation.”
With over 40 years in business on O’Connell Street, Mary Kelly flagged how unsuccessful pedestrianisation was during the severe lockdown, lending its hand to anti-social behaviour including open drinking as well as human excrements being left overnight. “It added to the sense of desolation and loneliness felt amongst the three or four business owners that remained open during that period. Every day there were fights. I had to lock my premises each day in fear.”
Wanting to see it pedestrianised on weekends only, she added that you cannot install pedestrianisation in a town that is crying out for parking and stressed that “the council has failed us on this time and time again.” She highlighted that the large taxi rank in Parnell Street Cark Park is wasteful and that maximum capacity for taximen should be up to four spaces, whilst the remainder could “wait at home for a call.” She also pointed to congestion at Bank Place caused by flower beds and bollards, which have taken vital parking spaces.
The only way to find solutions to the problem, she opined, is through “extensive consultation”, which must also include new plans for seating arrangements, that so far have been unsuccessful, in her opinion.
“Cars, seating and people must all go hand in hand. They need to put out concrete benches where people cannot sleep over night. I would like to see drop down seats and would be happy to put one out each day and take it up at the close of business. The biggest problem we have here in this town is ideas from people that do not shop or work in the centre here and do not know the true day to day running’s.”
Longstanding Abbey Street newsagents owner Gerry Connellan also expressed his frustration at the lack of available parking throughout and surrounding the town. He conceded that pedestrianisation does not directly affect his business but “if the town was properly facilitated with parking, pedestrianisation could work successfully.”
