*Patrick Bourke. Photograph: John Mangan
A PROMINENT ENNIS retailer has warned that he’ll take action if new elements of the public realm works in the county town become hotspots for anti-social behavior.
Work continues on the €11.5m public realm upgrades in Ennis which stand as one of the largest infrastructural projects undertaken in the town but the pace at which it is progressing is causing frustration among business owners.
Clare County Council have confirmed to The Clare Echo that the works are on track to be completed on schedule by late 2025, the project commenced in October 2023. A moratorium on all construction activity will be place in from November 28th throughout December and until January 6th to facilitate and encourage Christmas trading.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Patrick Bourke of Patrick Bourke Menswear voiced his frustration with the action of the contractors, Shareridge Ltd and Clare County Council.
Of particular frustration for him was the slow nature at which they progressed outside his store on High Street. “They started in January on 100 yards of a road from the Tea Shop to the Square, ten months later and they are still not done. In the middle of it all, an elderly person fell in March and we didn’t see an elderly person come into our shop for another two months because word got out among the elderly community that Ennis wasn’t so safe, we also have the women that used to come into town for their coffees but they are now avoiding town and are instead meeting on the Gort Rd or the Quin Rd instead. There is no need for them to have taken up half the space they have took up, they are making it prohibitive for people to walk up and down the street”.
Patrick said a new installation adjacent to the entrance of his store has not been touched in eight weeks but has been cordoned off, he warned that if it becomes a hive for people drinking alcohol, that he won’t hold back in taking action. “The Council are afraid of them (contractors) and that they will pull out. For eight weeks that flower snag has been there, I originally tightened up the barrier that was there because it was impacting on mobility, the snag has been there for eight weeks with bollards around it and they have not looked at it until yesterday after I confronted them over it, all it is doing is collecting litter and cigarette butts. If this snag turns out to be a spot for winos I’ll put superglue along it and glue their arses to it”.
He added, “Shareridge are following the same rulebook as BAM, they are stretching everything to the limit. There have been more photos taken of the level outside our door than the amount of photographs taken by the FBI of their suspects, then a fella has to come and verify the snags, within an hour there’s four of them examining it”.
Senior officials in the local authority have been told by Bourke that they are losing the trust of the public. “I’ve told senior people in the Council that the public has lost respect for Clare County Council and that it is very hard to restore that. The workers have only worked for three Saturdays and by the latest they are gone at 2pm on a Friday. Four businesses have closed in the area and there are more to go”.
Now in retail for fifty years, Patrick expressed concern that the shopping habits of customers in Ennis has changed. “It seems that by the time the town gets fully reopened that people’s routine of shopping will have changed and getting people back into town is going to be the biggest challenge. Generally the trend is that we’re not busy until 11am and then everything disappears from 5:30pm to 6pm. We’ve lost out on the window shopper and the tourists, people are only coming to us if they have a purpose, births, marriages and deaths are what are bringing people in, the window or occasional shopper is not there because it is not worth the hassle for them to come into town, hairdressers will say the same thing”.
“When it is all done it will be very good and European looking, it will be a smaller type of Malaga but will the traders survive till the end game. The shopping events that are being planned for December should give a boost to traders in December but it’s a bit like the floods in Spain, too little too late,” he concluded.
