Limerick council may row back on car ban plan for City centre

LIMERICK Council has signalled it may row back on proposals to part-pedestrianise Catherine Street after concerns from traders.

In a week where the majority of city centre shops opened after lockdown measures were eased, there is a sharp division among traders and politicians over the council’s post-pandemic plan, which would see a temporary ban on cars and parking in Catherine Street, and a number of other satellite thoroughfares.

Although more than 100 retailers from right across the city centre signed a petition in opposition, a group of business people have also come out in support of the proposals.

Now, economic director Vincent Murray has said the blueprint for Catherine Street will be “revised”.

Speaking at this week’s economic committee meeting, he acknowledged pedestrianisation is a “controversial aspect” of the plan.

“We have met a lot of traders and they’ve highlighted how this could be damaging to businesses as they recover. So some of the proposals will be revised on account of these. Maybe more limited closures might emerge out of it in the short term,” Mr Murray said.

Retailers  gathered for a socially distanced meeting at the People’s Park organised by Fine Gael councillor Sarah Kiely, who is set to be elected metropolitan district leader next week.

Her council colleague Emmett O’Brien, who was also there, said traders were “apoplectic” with what they feel is a lack of consultation over plans to lose parking from the site.

“The meeting was final straw stuff,” the Independent councillor said, “Traders in Catherine Street who are only just holding on have said enough is enough, they need to be listened to.”

“While you need footfall in the city, you can’t have 1,000 people spending €1 while turning away 100 people spending €100,” he said, suggesting that many people who would park on streets are doing just this.

And he criticised what he sees as a “very pronounced campaign” on social media which dismisses traders’ “very legitimate concerns out of hand.”

”These are the people who pay rates, rates is money, money pays for these lofty projects. To dismiss these concerns as being regressive or backward looking, or holding onto the past is absolutely outrageous,” Cllr O’Brien added.

But local TD Brian Leddin, whose Green Party is championing the temporary proposals, said many businesses depend on streets which are “less hostile to pedestrians”.

He claimed that multi-storey car parks in the city, some of which have up to 2,500 car spaces, are only sparsely used.

”So if we are talking about losing 30 parking spaces for the sake of pedestrianisation when there are 2,500 under-utilised what are we arguing about,” he asked, “Limerick is not a small town, it’s an ambitious city. The idea that you must be able to drive right up to the shop.. you wouldn’t get that in Galway, you wouldn’t get that in Cork, you wouldn’t get that in Dublin. So why are we pushing it in Limerick?”

Donal O’Connell, who now runs O’Connell’s Menswear, and was one of the traders who signed the petition, said: “The level of the traffic on the street is very little and businesses are struggling as it is to get back open and deal with the new normal. Reducing cars in the city is not the way to go. While we all like to be green, the car is the safest mode of transport into the city.”

Kevin Hogan, Melt Cafe, added it’s only the Catherine Street closure traders object to.

“Access through the middle of the city would be restricted completely. With buses being restricted with the number of people they can carry, we need our cars. Access to the multi-storey car park [in Anne Street] is a huge concern too. All the small independent businesses depend on it to pick up their shopping,” Mr Hogan said.

However, not all traders feel the same way. A group of 20 shop owners, largely drawn from the hospitality sector, have pointed to the 2018 Street Feast which saw Catherine Street closed as evidence pedestrianisation works.

In a statement, they wrote: “All the studies tell us the same thing: pedestrianisation works for business. Research by the Living Streets charity has shown that making places better for walking can boost footfall and trading by up to 40%. We are also satisfied that the temporary proposals don’t impact the flow of traffic from main routes into the city centre and that all access to multistorey car parks is retained. The off-street car parking spaces ensure all transport are accommodated.”