Sarah berates lack of council support

Any benefit brought to rural towns by the opening of bypass roads is being undermined by the failure of local authorities to reinvest money to make them attractive places to shop.

Galway businesswoman Sarah Harty, who made the claim, is the owner of a cafe restaurant in Gort. She said many businesses in the town were under threat due to the lack of support for local traders from Galway Co Council.

Like other entrepreneurs in Gort, Ms Harty said she welcomed the opening of the town’s bypass two years ago, which removed major traffic jams, caused by thousands of vehicles travelling on the main Ennis-Galway road, which regularly clogged its streets.

However, the closure of around 25 shops and businesses in Gort over the past 12 months has raised fears it could soon become a ghost town.

The popular owner, for the past eight years, of Gallery Café on Queen St in the south Galway town has accused the local council of consistently refusing to repair cracked pavements outside her restaurant. These faults, she says, pose a risk to her customers.

Her sense of frustration with the council grew after she was recently ordered to take down decking which she admitted was erected in a bid “to take matters into my own hands”.

However, she has run into further trouble with the council after putting tables and chairs on the pavement outside her restaurant during recent hot weather.

Ms Harty now faces a court appearance next month over her failure to obtain a licence for outdoor street furniture from the council.

“This lack of support for small businesses is completely killing our town,” she said. Local traders, she insisted, were “being suffocated by bureaucracy and red tape”.

In particular, she criticised the council for failing to take any initiative on free parking to lure shoppers back into Gort from supermarkets such as Aldi and Lidl, which are located on the town boundary.

Parking currently costs €1 per hour with a maximum two-hour stay.

“Original businesses with an entrepreneurial spirit should be encouraged, protected and directed, not suffocated,” she said.

A Galway County Council spokesman said the allocation of funding for footpath repairs was decided on a priority basis, while businesses wising to place tables on the footpath required a licence which cost €125 per table.

In addition, he said that parking revenues were used to fund the operational cost of the parking system and to fund new car parks. He also pointed out there was a minimum charge of 20c for 12 minutes.