Making a list for the town

Improved car-parking, lighting and more shops were top of the wish lists for businesses and residents in the Bailieborough area ahead of a regeneration project in the east Cavan town. Reporter Michelle Taite visited the town recently to find out more...

Carparking

The owner of Sandra's Alterations, Sandra Miller, feels car-parking is a problem on the town and more long-term spaces need to be provided.

“More parking. You have to stop work and move your car every two hours,” she said.

In some cases, Sandra feels shop owners are forced to take up their own customers' parking on the street. “There’s nothing we can do. Everyone’s giving out about the parking."

The business owner also believes there are not enough shops or retail outlets located at the top of the town.

“More shops up at the top. All the shops are down here, there’s none up there,” said Sandra.

Lighting

Street lighting is something that should be looked at as part of the regeneration of the town, according to Killinkere woman Marion Leavy.

“There’s not enough lighting, the town looks very scary,” said Marion.

“It’s not somewhere you’d walk down - the street at night. If I came in, I’d want to park very close to where I’m going, if I was going into the Bailie or that, I’d almost pray that there is a place to park close to the Bailie,” she added.

While street lighting is present on the main street, Marion said it needs improving.

“I find that even though the lights are there, they’re casting shadows on the entries and everything. The whole place should be lit up at night to make it much brighter.”

Like Sandra, Marion feels there are certain shops missing in the town.

“A shoe shop, a ladies and gents shoe shop, another jewellers and electrical shop. If I was getting a kettle, I’d probably go to Cavan town to some of the electrical shops in Cavan,” she remarked.

Francis Clarke of Clarke’s Hardware would also like to see more diversity of businesses and shops in the town to boost footfall overall.

“A dry cleaner is needed in a bad way,” he suggested.

A lick of paint

“I suppose it would be great if every place was painted,” said Alice Steinson, her hands full of groceries.

“It would be lovely then to see any of the places that are derelict looking to get somebody in them. Then it would be great to see some of the wee shops open again, but I don’t know how you’d go about doing that unfortunately."

She referenced outlets such as Sandy Modes and La Morage, among those to have closed their doors in recent years.

“It would be lovely to see that back up and running again. I’d love to shop locally," said Alice.

John Finnegan also suggested a facelift for shop fronts on the main street. “I hear people talking about painting the fronts of the buildings, maybe pastel colours or something like that. There’s quite a lot of small things we could do,” he said.

Looking out at the street, he added: “I think the footpaths are not a great idea out there because there’s weeds and everything growing out through them.”

While there were many small things that stood out to him, John felt the answer to all these issues would be to introduce a multinational company to the main street.

“A multinational on the main street rather than having them outside the town. The sad thing about Tesco is that the money they make is not even going back to this country," he added, in terms of investing the profits from such businesses.

John said it's the same for Lidl and Aldi, with the exception of workers' wages perhaps circulating in the local economy.

Taxes are also something John feels is impacting small businesses. "Reduce the rates,” he suggests.

“We’re at a different time, this is what they call the great reset. You’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy.”