Recession Galway

quietobserver

I dont know, its a catch 22 really. If they drop the prices too low, congestion will result. That will put people off going into the city centre and effect trade. As it stands prices are high but i guess their thinking is to reduce congestion in that way.
They probably need to outline to the public a month of trials and see how it effects trade, (not just how they percieve it to effect it but involve shop owners in a proper study)

alibabba

quietobserver wrote: »

I dont know, its a catch 22 really. If they drop the prices too low, congestion will result. That will put people off going into the city centre and effect trade. As it stands prices are high but i guess their thinking is to reduce congestion in that way.
They probably need to outline to the public a month of trials and see how it effects trade, (not just how they percieve it to effect it but involve shop owners in a proper study)

Maybe roll out the park n ride again for jan / feb
and when you use it, you get a loyalty / discount card that entitles you to say 30% off any shop that wants to enroll in it ?

quietobserver

not a bad idea Alibabba

Wompa1

It's between Mon-Thursday..10am-noon...that's not much help..The people making money to spend will still be in work.

Krieg

I saw today 3G upstairs in corbett court closed down, Im pretty sure the one downstairs closed down too.

HardyEustace

quietobserver wrote: »

I dont know, its a catch 22 really. If they drop the prices too low, congestion will result. That will put people off going into the city centre and effect trade. As it stands prices are high but i guess their thinking is to reduce congestion in that way. )

If people have access to a decent bus service, it will negate a lot of the issues. Ever since the no.9 bus has started running every 15 minutes and providing a really good service, lots of people use the bus now that wouldn't have before.

quietobserver

I think it would help for sure HardyEustace but i think irish people as a society are very independent (maybe even stubborn) and like to be in control of their own travel and when and how they travel to work, I think Galway cant be modelled like cities like Dublin, we have traffic congestion but it doesnt effect us right in the heart of the city, ours seems to effect the routes that connect us around the city. (as i write this im thinking of the N50:rolleyes:) but dublin city centre gets bad traffic congestion too.

I remember talking to a bike courier that used to try his luck in galway, there wasnt enough business within the city centre to warrant a service like his, most of galway businesses are set in ind estates which are prob just as quickly serviced by car even if you have to sit in traffic.

Right im too tired to think of how im finishing this.. my apologies.

As for 3G, they announced that all their shops in Ireland were closing, the network however is uneffected

ErnieBert

quietobserver wrote: »

As for 3G, they announced that all their shops in Ireland were closing, the network however is uneffected

3G has nothing to do with Three despite the similar names.

3G sold Apple Mac products and were agents for Eircom and Meteor.

www.three.ie still have shops on Shop St and Galway SC.

Mrs OBumble

alibabba wrote: »

Maybe roll out the park n ride again for jan / feb
and when you use it, you get a loyalty / discount card that entitles you to say 30% off any shop that wants to enroll in it ?

You know, it's possible to park in the estates off Doughiska Rd or Roscam (maybe even Renmore, but there you'd be fighting GMIT students and so probably annoying residents), and use the #9 bus as the equivalent of park-and-ride. Could even park in the race-course area, but there are less bus-shelters there.

Costs E3.20 per day, and is a little slower 'cos it stops on the way to town. But still way cheaper than parking, and you get to use the bus lanes.

There are some spots during the day when the allocation of buses to the timetable isn't right - eg 5:15pm in to town is almost always very late, which means that the service it runs out must also be very late. But most of the time it's great.

(getting this back on-topic for recession Galway: you could maybe park in some of the industrial estates where there's so much less demand for parking now!)

snubbleste

Fella came to my door today asking if I wanted to buy turf (for the fire). He had a big trailer full behind his car. Haven't seen that in years

Discodog

Maybe people feel that they pay a fortune to buy a car, a fortune to tax it, insure it, NCT it & then give the government even more to put fuel in it. So why the hell shouldn't they use it. If the car is to become a weekend plaything then per mile it will be cheaper to hire a limousine.

Businesses in Galway have forgotten how to sell & offer customer service. Far fewer of us would be buying in the North or on the net if we were not being either locally ripped off or ignored.

snubbleste

Long queues force city Dole office to close doors for day

A Labour councillor was ".. shocked and annoyed that the office could close just like that.."
The Tribune writer called it a dole office as opposed to the local office for the Department of Social Protection

Starie1975

Here is a photo of mine that I took on St Stephen's Day 2008. I sent it to a few local papers and it made it's way to the Sunday papers that week after. Still waiting for my payment.

Recession.jpg

dolphin city

yes shop street is always busy.....the street is........not the shops.

HardyEustace

JustMary wrote: »

You know, it's possible to park in the estates off Doughiska Rd or Roscam (maybe even Renmore, but there you'd be fighting GMIT students and so probably annoying residents), and use the #9 bus as the equivalent of park-and-ride. Could even park in the race-course area, but there are less bus-shelters there.

Costs E3.20 per day, and is a little slower 'cos it stops on the way to town. But still way cheaper than parking, and you get to use the bus lanes.

The estate is there for people to live in it's NOT A F*CKING CAR PARK. I can't believe you're advocating this kind of behaviour. There are very few extra car parking areas in the estate. People parking on the estate roads cause lots of problems for people driving in and out of the estate and reduce visibility of kids playing and crossing the road.

snubbleste

The Clayton Hotel in Ballybrit has gone into receivership

chuckliddell

snubbleste wrote: »

The Clayton Hotel in Ballybrit has gone into receivership

do you know the full story on why its gone into receivership or just the 2 paragraphs you've read?

soundbyte

chuckliddell wrote: »

do you know the full story on why its gone into receivership or just the 2 paragraphs you've read?

If I may field this one snubbleste ...

This is a thread about the recession. The collapse of the Clayton's owner's development company led to the receivership. Therefore it is part of 'recession Galway'

Also:

Jobs are secure as four-star hotel goes into receivership

'House of cards' effect from the collapse of development company

ALL 130 members of staff at the plush four-star Clayton Hotel in Galway have been told their jobs are secure, after Ulster Bank appointed a receiver to the business this week.

The owner told the Connacht Tribune he was “crushed and devastated” having lost the business on Tuesday morning.
However, receiver Kieran Wallace of KPMG said the hotel will continue trading as normal, and he is confident it will have a profitable future.

All bookings and deposits for functions will be honoured, and the day-to-day running of the hotel will not be affected.

The hotel, which was owned by developer Shane Connolly, had been trading extremely well in recent months.

The receiver said: “Unfortunately the Clayton, like many other hotels throughout the country, has been affected by events outside of its control.

“However, it remains a sound business with an established reputation for quality and luxury, and we are confident that working with the hotel’s staff and management team that it will continue to trade successfully and profitably into the future,” he said.

Mr Wallace was appointed receiver over Chequer Hill Investments and Three Corner Holdings Ltd, which own the Clayton.

Despite restructuring his business interests several years ago to protect the hotel, the collapse of Mr Connolly’s Marcon Developments last month caused a domino effect and prompted Ulster Bank to move to protect its position in relation to the Clayton.

The bank now ‘owns’ the Clayton and it will be run by Mr Wallace as a going concern.

An emotional Shane Connolly, who lost the hotel on Tuesday morning, told the Connacht Tribune: “This has taken a lot out of me emotionally, financially, personally and professionally. When you build something out of nothing, nurture it and develop it, then you have to give it away, it crushes you. I have to think about the 130 workers and their families.

“We are all devastated. My main objective is to ensure that the hotel has minimum impact. It is a situation where there are no winners. It's primarily due to a hostile court case against my development company [Marcon], which I am legally prevented from commenting on.
“I am not in the business of apportioning blame. Suffice it to say that the current economic global downturn has choked the life out of the development market, which unfortunately and regrettably has brought the Clayton into its web.

“The unwavering hard work of each and every current staff member at the Clayton has to count for something. It is my dearest wish that the hotel continues to trade. The hardest experience was informing the staff,” said Mr Connolly.

A statement from the hotel reads: “The hotel continues to trade as normal. All of the hotel’s 130 full and part-time staff will continue to be employed. There will be no interruption in trade and all customer bookings and deposits will be honoured.”

Last month, Marcon Developments collapsed into liquidation with debts of almost €20m. Mr Connolly was among the creditors and was owed around €8m.

The ‘house of cards’ fell when Mr Connolly was unable to reach agreement with John Sisk & Sons over a €2m debt – relating to a development site off the main street in Oughterard – and a liquidator was then appointed.

Link

chuckliddell

man thats horrible, and i thought i had problems,

Head The Wall

The important thing is that the hotel stays open and viable, we need all the jobs we can get so that's something positive

He claimed he lost €8 million himself, you'd have to wonder was that actually real money or not? secondly in my opinion the reason it went into receivership may have been due to tax breaks that the development company had against the hotel and when Marcon went the tax breaks for the Clayton went with it.

Thats only my opinion and I'm not sure how the tax break scheme works. The Clayton project was supposedly in trouble halfway through the build stage however many years back, I think Marcon started the build but John Sisk stepped in half way through and finished the job.

blueburd

Karl Hungus wrote: »

Well, a recession isn't exactly an instant thing, it's not as if the shops and pubs were going to be deserted overnight, it's something that'll take a long time to feel the effects of.

we certainly feel the pinch now, and even more after this new flipping budget!

snubbleste

The company, which owns Zhivago music stores in Galway, has gone into voluntary liquidation with the loss of a dozen jobs.
Sound City Galway Limited operated the main Zhivago outlet at Shop Street in the city and the Zhivago outlet at Galway Shopping Centre.
The Shop Street outlet shut its doors a number of days ago, while the outlet at the Galway Shopping Centre will trade under a new name.

http://www.galwaynews.ie/17078-zhivago-music-shops-go-voluntary-liquidation

Krieg

Does that mean there is no more ticketmaster kiosk in Galway?
Or is there another one around?

soundbyte

Ticketmaster will continue trading from Lynch's cafe next door.

Also, Fancy Fare in Salthill is a Ticketmaster outlet (or certainly used to be).

snubbleste

Marked increase in children walking to school each day. Also more children and adults cycling, always a plus. Less motorised traffic as a result.

JohnCleary

snubbleste wrote: »

Marked increase in children walking to school each day. Also more children and adults cycling, always a plus. Less motorised traffic as a result.

And less fat children! I seriously need to buy myself a bike this summer, i'm sick of making short trips in the car

-Vega-

JohnCleary wrote: »

And less fat children! I seriously need to buy myself a bike this summer, i'm sick of making short trips in the car

Buy one while you can! Next we will hear all the bike shops have closed down It's bad lads, pretty bad. A friend of mine from Galway who has been living in England for the last 3 or 4 years due to college and what not came home to visit a few weeks ago. Said he couldn't believe how much the country had changed in terms of attitude. Said the craic was dead and everyone was worried, bang on to be honest. Struggling to even get an overdraft these days, no hope of a mortgage any time soon and I'm fully employed.

Bosco boy

Hats off to anyone in business at the moment, local businesses deserve all the support they can get, some of the businesses that have failed would not have started origionally if the mad bubble hadn't been created in the first place with seanie fitzpatrick and co dishing out billions to developers. It's sad to see long established businesses fail in particular.

celty

Agree so much with a lot of the recent posts on here. I think it is important to try and support local businesses if you have cash to spend, and I know a lot of people don't. I know so many people who are worried about their jobs, mortgages, futures, and businesses who are fed up with the way they are being treated by the banks who ruined this country in the first place.

Just two little things. I'm back in Galway after some time out of the country and I've bought a season ticket for Galway United which I think is great value at 99 euros. The fans themselves have taken over the running of the club and I've enjoyed heading up the Dyke Road the last couple of Fridays, hooking up with a few old friends and savouring the atmosphere. Yes, it's not Liverpool or Man Utd, but the club came desperately close to folding recently and it's important to support a local side rather than UK based multimillionaires. It's also a bit of Friday night entertainment without the expense of getting a taxi to and from the pub.

Two, I ditched my car for a bicycle ... and love it. Love breathing in fresh air on my way to work, not having to worry about a parking space, and just being able to hop on it most days. I know it rains a lot in Galway but I've only got wet twice in the last four weeks and it really is a healthy change. The price of petrol was one of the things that shocked me most when I came home.

snubbleste

Was in the Galway Shopping Centre today. Noticed a good few empty units.
Budget, Birthdays, one beside O'Briens (luggage shop?) and a few more.
Not good for a place that markets itself as the biggest centre west of the Shannon.