Pilot scheme to regulate casual trading begins

Bantry businesses say they will “keep a watching brief” on a pilot scheme which gets under way today aimed at regulating casual market trading in the town.

Cork County Council is to impose a €5 parking charge on all traders from today and is also to provide them with litter bins and insist they tidy up all rubbish before leaving the market.

Regular casual traders will also have to ensure they have adequate public liability insurance.

Gearóid O’Leary, Bantry Business Association (BBA) chairman, said there were some aspects of the pilot scheme his members had reservations about, but were prepared, at the moment, to take a watching brief.

Mr O’Leary said between 60 and 70 casual traders arrive in Bantry for the weekly market.

He acknowledged the Friday influx of people and casual traders “are actually good for the town”. But he said there were concerns there was no designated area for the market and no designated parking places.

He described the €5 parking fee as “derisory” and claimed it should be increased. “We are trying to make some progress and get the traders regulated. The council have hired a market manager but if a trader doesn’t want to pay the €5 parking fee then she has no power to collect it,” he said.

The pilot project will continue until March, at which stage the local authority hopes to have a set of bylaws in place which will regulate the casual traders much more.

“The BBA will meet in two weeks’ time to review how the pilot scheme is working and what issues have cropped up. We have some reservations about certain aspects of the pilot scheme but it’s our view we can’t allow the present conditions to continue because it’s bedlam with parking in the town on Fridays,” Mr O’Leary said.

He said some traders came to the town as early as 4pm on a Thursday to set up for the following day and this could prove problematic.

But he welcomed the fact that casual traders will have to clean up all the litter by their stalls. “At present, it’s costing the town council an awful lot of money and resources to clean up after the market,” he said.

But Cllr Pat Bonna Kelly (FF), a member of the town council said: “I’m not happy with the idea that casual traders can choke up our town every Friday, pay their €5 and then spend their takings elsewhere. People are at a loss as to why we are giving them [causal traders] spaces all around the square, up side streets and the lower car park. Where is the car parking for the ratepayers in Bantry?

“There are lots of people who will not come to Bantry when the market is on because of the parking situation and you can’t blame them. I want parking around the square to be kept for shoppers only,” he said.