Call to dedicate more staff to tackling poor-quality shopfronts in Limerick is rejected

LIMERICK City and County Council has rejected a call to dedicate more staff hours to tackling the issue of poor-quality shop frontages locally.

Independent councillor Maria Donoghue, an architect by profession, raised concerns about the appearance of some shops in the city centre at this month’s metropolitan meeting.

“We have a large amount of poor shopfront signage design, if you could call it that, across the city. There’s poor quality design, poor quality materials. It looks cheap and it’s a poor reflection of our city,” she said.

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Through a notice of motion, the City West councillor called for council to put in place an extra member of staff to focus especially on the removal of poor shopfront signage.

“We already have an overstretched enforcement team, and I am calling on the council to resource an additional enforcement officer for the city centre to manage our buildings a bit better,” she said.

Councillor Donoghue also identified a problem with the way vacant commercial properties, which are being converted into homes, look.

She received support from councillors Olivia O’Sullivan and Peter Doyle.

“It’s disheartening for existing shop owners who keep their shopfronts in good condition to see this,” he said.

Council senior planner Barry Henn said the local authority does not have the capacity to appoint a member of staff solely for this purpose.