Councillor John Dolan has called on the council to puts a signage plan in place for businesses who wish to advertise on the Greenway.
At this week’s Athlone Municipal District meeting, Councillor Dolan said that individual businesses are anxious to capitalise on the opportunity for business that the Greenway provides, citing one restaurant in Moate that had 20 cyclists stop by for refreshments last week as an example.
Director of services Barry Kehoe responded to Dolan by calling it a “difficult predicament”. While wanting to support local businesses in any way the council can, he said it is important to maintain the integrity of the Greenway as a scenic tourist attraction, and not one muddied by mass signage: “We need to be really careful here,” he told councillors.
“Of course we want to aid and support local business in whatever way we can, but we have to be careful not to do damage to the product itself. It could get to the point where we have a proliferation of signs and we really can’t let that happen.” Both Mr Kehoe and the councillors are supportive of the idea of erecting generic signage denoting nearby businesses serving refreshments, such as by means of a capital ‘T,’ for instance.
Councillor Kevin “Boxer” Moran suggested placing a single, large coloured map listing all the businesses of the town, an idea he noted is being utilised in sections of the Mayo Greenway.
