Pedestrianisation trial postponed

ENNIS Town Council is not abandoning its objective to introduce the pedestrianisation of some of the town’s streets on a permanent basis.
Speaking with regard to the postponement of the six-month Saturday trial pedestrianisation, Ennis town manager Ger Dollard said the town council regard pedestrianisation as key to the enhancement of the overall shopping experience in Ennis, as well as the improved safety of the town.
At this week’s meeting of the town council, where the issue was debated in front of a large representation of town centre businesses, Mr Dollard said the Ennis Town Development Plan has “a very clear statement regarding the pedestrianisation of Ennis and includes a map and image of how the town would look if pedestrianised”.
He pointed out prior to the trial period, which began in May, that heretofore the town had only been pedestrianised for special events and in the lead-up to Christmas.
“During the trial period, pedestrianisation has only taken place on six Saturdays since May and three of them were festival days. We have done our own footfall analysis and have found the town has been quite busy and car park levels have shown that people have been coming to town,” he added.
The town manager also said that Ennis Town Council and Ennis Chamber tried to attract people to come to Ennis to shop and to stay.
Mr Dollard told the council that they have statutory obligations in relation to pedestrianisation, as it is included in the Town Development Plan 2008 to 2014. He also warned postponing pedestrianisation means the council would be breaching an agreement they had previously made and would ignore one of the conditions of the town development plan, without bringing it back to the public.
He also put it to council that other issues may have affected business on recent Saturdays.
“There is nothing to say that there is a direct relationship between pedestrianisation and the drop in business. We have to consider if the good weather affected business? Did the World Cup affect it? Was a drop in business the trend anyway?” he asked.
Chief executive officer of Ennis Chamber, Rita McInerney said a survey of its members had found that nearly 60% of businesses reported a negative effect on trading because of pedestrianisation.
Based on the negative experience of business during the initial six weeks of the trial, she said the Chamber could no longer support the trial.
She expressed disappointment at the failure of the initiative. “It appears that buyer behaviour at the weekends is undergoing significant changes. There might have been good footfall on the streets on the exceptionally sunny days that comprised four of the six pedestrianised Saturdays but these people are not buying.”