‘Living Towns – A Case
Study’ was the title of the talk given to an
interested audience by Offaly’s Heritage Officer Amanda Pedlow in the Clanard
Court Hotel last Wednesday evening.
Organised by Honor McCulloch of the Friends of Athy Heritage Centre it
proved to be a stimulating and thought provoking look at the future facing high
streets of Irish provincial towns. It
was of particular relevance to Athy where vacant ground floor premises, once retailing
outlets, have added to the vacant first and second floor accommodation which a
few decades ago were the living quarters of shop owners families and shop
assistants. Our main streets were up to
three or four decades ago thriving centres of retailing activity and centres of
‘live in’ communities which made our
town centre vibrant places to shop and live.
The first change noticed was a gradual one occasioned by a move away
from the tradition of shop assistants ‘living
in’ and the subsequent move by shop owners to live in the suburbs. Nevertheless shops and public houses
continued to thrive on the main street, but as shopping habits changed the
traditional make up of the main street started to change. It was the rise of the supermarket which spelt
the death knell of the small grocery shop of which there were once many located
on Athy’s main streets.
Change in our drinking habits, prompted in part at least, by tougher
drink driving laws, gave an impetus to the development of off licences, but also
inevitably led to the closure of several public houses. Athy, which in 1914 had forty public houses
catering for a town population just slightly in excess of 4,000, today has sixteen
public houses for a population of 9,000 or so.
The dominant use of cars by shoppers is another factor in Athy’s
town centre struggle for survival. When the
local Town Council implemented a pay parking regime in the town inevitably it
acted as a deterrent to would be town centre shoppers. Our Town Council brought in pay parking some
years ago ostensibly as a traffic management scheme but within months of doing
so the scheme was extended to every road way and lane in the town in an obvious
attempt to maximise revenue. The
implementation of pay parking in Athy accelerated the rate of abandonment of
the town centre and in my view contributed to the high rate of vacated premises
on our main streets.
The talk by Offaly’s Heritage Officer brought home to her audience
the urgent need for local people to take an active interest in the future
development of their town and the need for cooperation between the locals and
the local authority in planning for the town’s future. Unplanned change has come to our town centre,
but we must plan for the future and ensure that the once thriving town centre
does not further deteriorate to become rows of empty shops slipping slowly but
inevitably into a state of sad dereliction.
Vacant premises give rise to empty streets and empty streets in the
town centre do not give us safe public places.
We need to recreate living and working spaces in our town centres and in
that regard we should follow the example of French municipal authorities. Those authorities consistently strive to
maintain their town centres by ensuring the retention of traditional retailing
and service outlets to the extent of refusing to follow EEC decisions to the
contrary.
Athy town centre is slowly degenerating and urgent action must be
taken by the local authority and by the local community to halt its
destruction. Local businesses need to be
encouraged and incentives provided to stimulate the reinstatement of living
accommodation in the town centre. A good
example is given by Dublin City Council which in an attempt to reenergise the
inner city provide financial incentives to bring vacant buildings and empty
sites back into use.
One thing which the local authority could do immediately is to
provide for three hours free parking for local shoppers. That in itself would encourage people to shop
locally. The more people shop locally
the better the prospect of local shops remaining in business and improving the
range and quality of goods offered for sale.
With the imminent disbandment of Athy Town Council responsibility for
the future development of the town will pass to Kildare County Council. However, our local Chamber of Commerce must
play a more active role in promoting Athy and ensuring its future as the
commercial heart of South Kildare.
No comments:
Post a Comment