Businesses in the city’s Parade area are being devastated by the building works that have been taking place outside their businesses for over a year.
Business people in the area have recorded losses of more than 30 per cent of their business since the works have begun and they are extremely frustrated at the slow pace of the development.
Patricia Keane of Top Hat Dress Suit Hire is extremely upset at the lack of progress on the project which she says has devastated her business.
“There has been no consultation with us business people about what is going on. We were initially told that the project would take one year, now its 18 months and you can be sure that this development will not be finished in 18 months - it will run longer than that. But we are not being informed.
“People do not want to come up through a dusty, dirty building site to collect their dress suits or wedding suits. There is nowhere to park or pull in and one of my customers got a ticket recently when he attempted to pull in for less than two minutes when he was collecting his suit. It’s crazy and very frustrating,” she said.
“When the Parade is finally completed it will be lovely I’m sure - but there will be no businesses here,” she pointed out.
Meanwhile the manager of Ten boutique, Isabella Scilba, said that the works are extremely intrusive.
“Today particularly it is very noisy with all the drilling and it is very annoying. Besides that the shop is very quiet - my first customers arrived in at 12.30 today and this is a lovely sunny day when people would normally be walking along the Parade towards the castle and would pop in for a look. This business is very affected and I don’t believe it will be finished by September,” she added.
John Delahunty of Castle Cabinets is equally affected. He is annoyed at the dirt of the footpaths and streets which he says is being walked into all of the businesses along the strip every day.
“Without a doubt these works have affected our business. This time of year normally picks up for us and I can see myself that there are houses at the stage where they are ready for kitchens but we are not getting the business. I have spent a lot of money on advertising this year - more than ever - but I am not seeing the benefits. The footfall has dramatically fallen. The project has gone beyond any reasonable time-scale at this stage and it is very damaging for businesses in the area. The developers are making no attempt to leave the place clean when they finish work and the dirt is just left there. The paths are like an open sewer. This was once an impressive thoroughfare. I think the works should be going on at weekends too in order to get the job finished more quickly but this is not happening,” he said.
Another prominent business on the Parade said that the business is being devastated as people simply are not coming up along the street by day or by night.
“I clean outside my premises every day as it is just filthy. The impression of Kilkenny is being badly tarnished - it is not attractive. The council should be communicating better with the businesses but I have been stood up for several planned meetings with the council officials.
“Our customers aren’t happy - there is no parking, no drop off and now there is a one way system planned with once again - no consultation,” said one businessman.
Meanwhile senior engineer at Kilkenny Borough Council Kieran Fitzgerald said this week that he believed that the Parade project would run to schedule and works would be completed by September as planned.
“Contrary to popular belief - there has been no downtime on the Parade. What has happened is that the Canal Bank Square and walk took precedence in the run up to the Kilkenny 400 celebrations for Easter as it needed to be completed so all resources were being used on this project and there was a lessening of activity on the Parade. I still envisage the Parade being completed on schedule,” he said.
Local Fianna Fail councillor Andrew McGuinness added, “some signage was erected to inform people that business in the area is operating as usual, however, it is very difficult to actually see some of the businesses as they are hidden behind a construction site. Passing trade has dropped significantly as a result, and I’m calling on Kilkenny Borough Council to engage with the business owners, give them an exact time-frame for completion of the project, erect better signage for the businesses and speed up the process so the job is complete as quickly as possible,” he said.
