Pedestrianisation plans ‘will be fought’

Suggestions that Cavan County Council intend pedestrianising the Cavan Town Centre have been dismissed by a local authority spokesperson.

Members of the town's business community contacted the Anglo Celt to express their anger with a proposal (scroll down to see map) brought to the Cavan Town Team to revive a 10 year old plan scuppered by traders when suggested back in 2007.

“The plans from 2007 rode roughshod over half the town. If that plan is coming again, it will certainly be fought all the way to the end.”

Those were the words this week of Pacelli Lynch, the managing director at P&M Lynch Ltd (Eason Cavan) and former President of Cavan Chamber of Commerce, in response to the ‘new circulation system and pedestrianisation scheme’ as it’s being termed.

A statement from Cavan County Council said three documents, The Integrated Framework Plan, the Transportation Study [prepared by WSP Consulting Engineers] and an Urban Design Framework [prepared by O’Mahony Pike Architects] are incorporated into the current Cavan Town and Environs Development Plan 2014-2020.

“One of the short-term recommendations of the Transportation Study was the pedestrianisation of part of the Town Centre. Since it has been ten years since the Transportation Study was prepared, Cavan County Council presented the proposal to pedestrianise part of Main Street at a recent meeting of the Cavan Town Team for discussion purposes.

Though the proposal is at a preliminary feasibility stage, the Council sought to ascertain the general feeling among the Town Team and the business community towards such a proposal at this time. The views expressed at the meeting have been noted.”

The resurrected blueprint proposes pedestrianising the section from Black’s Newsagents at the top of Thomas Ashe Street to the White Star at the entrance to the Tesco carpark and also implementing a ‘no car zone’ on the section from the Market Square to O’Rourke’s Office Supplies on Townhall Street.

It also suggests reversing the traffic flow on Bridge Street and a one-way system to operate from the Bridge Street carpark through Abbey Street towards the Farnham Road.

Andrew Pierce owns and runs J&B Hope on Bridge Street. As a member of the voluntary Town Team, he has been apprised of the proposals and feels that it is not in the best interest of the existing business community.

“The proposal is to totally pedestrianise the section from Black’s Newsagents to the White Star on Main Street and down to O’Rourke’s on Townhall Street from 11am to 7pm daily,” the perplexed shop owner told The Anglo-Celt.

“The plans, as we see them, would make it almost impossible to trade in Bridge Street, simply because there is no provision to get any sort of deliveries or to stop in front of the shop,” Mr Pierce said.

The 2007 council plan came as local development company P Elliott & Co proposed to open up a shopping walkway between Ashe Street and Town Hall Street, but the plan failed to materialise when the recession gripped the Irish economy.

Mr Lynch was a vocal opponent when the plan was mooted a decade ago and is still of a similar mind: “The overall plan was presented to the Town Team a couple of weeks ago. I am not part of the Town Team but the objections we had before stand; the whole thing does not seem to make any sense. All traffic was diverted to the front door of a new shopping centre in Ashe Street.”

 

Town centre sale

Speculation now is that the pedestrianisation design could facilitate the sale of the 2.42 acre block of property at the centre of Cavan Town. This batch of properties are back on the market as previous negotiations concluded without success.

“The rumour is that this could facilitate the buying up of the area of town behind Main Street but it is sacrificing the rest of the town,” Mr Pierce said.

Mr Lynch is equally perturbed by the rumours: “It is very unfair on the traders at that end [Bridge Street] and the traders at my end of the town.”

He continued: “We just can’t have the people who weathered the recession overlooked... We support the town and we would like the council to take that on board and say ‘these are the guys who have been the backbone of the town through thick and thin’.”

 

Public meeting

Andrew Pierce says that this is not a black and white issue and believes that a public meeting will shed more light on the matter: “There are people on both sides of this. Some people think it will be great for the town, others think it will be bad for business. The meeting tomorrow will give us a good idea of how people feel about it.”

The traders held a public meeting last Wednesday [November 22] in Maudie’s Home Bakery on Bridge Street. A report on the meeting will be in next week's Anglo Celt.