O’CONNELL STREET has reopened to traffic with pedestrianisation in Ennis ending on Sunday.
By Adam Maloney
The Clare Echo spoke with members of the public on Tuesday morning to gauge their opinions on pedestrianisation in the county town.
Mary Loughnane, Chez Marie, O’Connell Street, Ennis
“It’s only at an end for a couple of weeks as far as I’m aware, its only at an end to come as there now complying the regulations that were never put in place but should’ve been put in place before they went ahead with full pedestrianisation for the last twelve months. I’m personally not in favour of full pedestrianisation, simply because I’m almost 40 years in business and I can speak for how this town was before pedestrianisation particularly on O’Connell Street. As you can see there’s serious anti-social behaviour and I mean it’s a daily occurrence and this all started in my opinion and nobody is going to change my opinion since pedestrianisation. I said this before over and over again, you know closing the street to traffic, is leading to serious problems in every street it has ever happened on, so we need to look at other towns and see what has happened. This town is ok to have one or two small streets pedestrianised, but to pedestrianise the main street in this town is leading to not only anti-social behaviour, but crazy pile ups on the main road. People can’t access this town, as we used to. It’s just insane but it’s going to happen regardless of what those of us in business are saying, we know it’s going to happen, but so be it, we can’t do nothing about it.
“I love to see the cars passing through O’Connell Street, I love cars passing through O’Connell Street when you have cars passing through O’Connell Street you’ve got eyes on the street the whole time, these people that are misbehaving don’t have the opportunity to do so because they know that somebody will see them at some stage. You know people walking up and down are more concerned about where they’re going to go next, people in cars are watching all the time. I love the cars down the street the atmosphere in fantastic when the cars are on the street.
“I’m not in favour of pedestrianisation, and I never will be, no, I just feel they are going to destroy our town and that’s it, so be it”.
Liam Meaney, Club Dangan, O’Connell Street Ennis
“In terms of trade I think it (ending of measures) will be very beneficial to all of our stores, especially here on O’Connell Street, you can see the influence it has with it being closed during the days. I’ve said it a few times especially with the cold wet days has a massive impact when people can’t drive down the street especially if they wanted to hop out of the car and quickly get something or drop someone off when it’s raining, but definitely I’m looking forward to having back open and getting the cars down the street again.
“I personally would be not in favour of it being pedestrianised, like everything it has pros and cons, but from the streets being closed I think its probably had more of a negative impact on trade then positive so going forward I’d probably have to be against it to be honest.
James Nagle, Quin:
“If you had more pedestrians on streets, you could sit out and have a coffee.
“No matter what you do you’ll always get people to object whether it’s good or bad, I know there’s one particular chap in Dublin, he’ll object to everything in the country, and he’s nothing got to do with it, but to me it doesn’t bother me”.
Phil Browne, Hermitage, Ennis:
“I’m not in favour of it, I think it is a good thing (end of pedestrianisation measures). My son is a taxi driver and he would be delighted”.
