By Tríona Doherty
A pilot scheme to improve the appearance of vacant business premises in the Pearse Street area may be extended to the Church Street and Mardyke Street areas.
Cllr Frankie Keena is calling on the council to work with the local Tidy Towns and Chamber of Commerce to come up with ways of “enhancing the streetscape, particularly to address the bare look of empty shop windows that unfortunately have ceased trading”.
“I understand that a pilot programme is happening on the west side, but we are coming into Easter and the tourism period in the year of The Gathering. I would suggest empty windows could be used to market our castle, art gallery, and town parks. Forward thinking is needed, we can’t wait for the pilot scheme to finish on the west side,” he said.
Cllr Gabrielle McFadden suggested encouraging businesses located outside the town to use vacant shop windows to advertise.
“I presume the scheme could also be extended to Irishtown and Connaught Street; we often talk about Church Street but businesses are struggling in other areas,” she added.
Meanwhile Cllr Mark Cooney wanted to know if these advertising businesses would be subject to commercial rates, while Cllr Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran added that issues such as insurance and securing keys to the premises would have to be considered.
Town clerk Hugh O’Reilly wished to acknowledge the work being carried out by the property owners on the town’s west side, in conjunction with the Tidy Towns committee.
“They are doing tremendous work with improving the facades of buildings, and we hope the process can be extended to the town centre area. We have met with the Chamber and confirmed that it wouldn’t be rated.”
