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Stores Closing in Sligo **mod warning post #720**

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Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 518 ✭✭✭Vlove


    may be wrong but i thought i read/heard somewhere they were there rent free for a while

    should be able to get to rest of quayside now without walking through Next shop which was always silly i thought

    Yeah its ridiculous indeed and like the clothes or the layout of the store really isn't great in my opinion. When it's really busy in town, you'd have to be running around the store without avoiding crowds coming in ahe out of the store..


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,809 ✭✭✭✭Andy From Sligo


    Homebase don’t sell kitchenware anymore.

    Next have been in trouble in Sligo for a while. That’s why they restructured the layout to put the kids stuff in the biggest section - it’s their biggest seller in Sligo. They had disagreements with centre management over opening hours at Christmas almost every year, with Next wanting to close at say 1or 2pm and the centre saying they had to open because of the Quay street side.

    As far as I’m aware, TK Maxx were looking to move to Carraroe but the shopping centre management offered them a great deal to stay put. Not sure how it’ll pan out if the centre is emptying faster than an Olympic sprinter out of the blocks!

    interesting - thanks


  • Registered Users Posts: 631 ✭✭✭sligono1


    Who actually owns the Quayside? I had herd before an American vulture fund bought it or the debt off the bank


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,636 ✭✭✭✭For Forks Sake


    sligono1 wrote: »
    Who actually owns the Quayside? I had herd before an American vulture fund bought it or the debt off the bank

    As far as I'm aware, it was purchased by U.S company Varde as part of a tranche of 7 properties "Spectrum portfolio " back in 2015. Not sure whether they've attempted to spin it on again since or not.


  • Registered Users Posts: 101 ✭✭Capone79


    DV8 should move into Next, that’s if EJ AND HIS CRONIES won’t object. They’re the problem, plus greedy landlords. The CC are complaining about people shopping across the border in Enniskillen but who have they got resurfacing Ashlane??? Contractors from Enniskillen. Pot, kettle!


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 96 ✭✭sligoblue


    Capone79 wrote: »
    DV8 should move into Next, that’s if EJ AND HIS CRONIES won’t object. They’re the problem, plus greedy landlords. The CC are complaining about people shopping across the border in Enniskillen but who have they got resurfacing Ashlane??? Contractors from Enniskillen. Pot, kettle!

    Have to say, I'm very impressed with EJ, he kept going through a recession and is now doing very well due to clever advertising and internet sales. There is an article about him in today's Times, do you know he employs 27 people in his shop? Chains like Next, Aware (not the local guys) River Island will come and go depending on profit, a local guy stuck it out and is doing well, but you begrudge him it.

    In regard to the infrastructure works, if local companies want the jobs, then they have to be more competitive.


  • Registered Users Posts: 422 ✭✭The Assistinator


    sligoblue wrote: »
    Have to say, I'm very impressed with EJ, he kept going through a recession and is now doing very well due to clever advertising and internet sales. There is an article about him in today's Times, do you know he employs 27 people in his shop? Chains like Next, Aware (not the local guys) River Island will come and go depending on profit, a local guy stuck it out and is doing well, but you begrudge him it.

    In regard to the infrastructure works, if local companies want the jobs, then they have to be more competitive.
    And likewise if local shops are more competitive, people will not go across the border.
    Agree though on EJ, fair dues for seen through the recession and going strong now.


  • Registered Users Posts: 101 ✭✭Capone79


    sligoblue wrote: »
    Have to say, I'm very impressed with EJ, he kept going through a recession and is now doing very well due to clever advertising and internet sales. There is an article about him in today's Times, do you know he employs 27 people in his shop? Chains like Next, Aware (not the local guys) River Island will come and go depending on profit, a local guy stuck it out and is doing well, but you begrudge
    him it.


    In regard to the infrastructure works, if local companies want the jobs, then they have to be more competitive.

    Don’t give me that crap.He stuck it out because no other shop is allowed to sell the likes of Superdry etc. I’m all for competition, which means lower prices for the paying public. No one should have a monopoly on anything in such a small town.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,259 ✭✭✭Buford T Justice


    Capone79 wrote: »
    Don’t give me that crap.He stuck it out because no other shop is allowed to sell the likes of Superdry etc. I’m all for competition, which means lower prices for the paying public. No one should have a monopoly on anything in such a small town.

    Really, So what does the superdry shop in Johnstons Court sell then?
    Or TK Maxx?


  • Registered Users Posts: 101 ✭✭Capone79


    Really, So what does the superdry shop in Johnstons Court sell then?
    Or TK Maxx?

    The second hand shop, TK Maxx?

    All I’m saying is some other decent clothes outlet like DV8 needs to move into Next. EJ is complete robbery if you ask me.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,185 ✭✭✭dee_mc


    Capone79 wrote: »
    The second hand shop, TK Maxx?

    All I’m saying is some other decent clothes outlet like DV8 needs to move into Next. EJ is complete robbery if you ask me.

    TK Maxx isn't a second hand store, it's a discounter.
    I would've thought DV8 would have a bit of a different customer profile to EJ's - I live near Ennis where there's a DV8 store and an awful lot of what they sell is cheap tat. Their Superdry prices look no better than the prices in the independent shops in Ennis that also stock the brand.
    It will be interesting to see what pops up in that unit once Next is gone.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,259 ✭✭✭Buford T Justice


    Capone79 wrote: »
    The second hand shop, TK Maxx?

    All I’m saying is some other decent clothes outlet like DV8 needs to move into Next. EJ is complete robbery if you ask me.

    And all i'm saying is that you're spouting waffle that's factually incorrect. TKMaxx isn't a second hand shop.

    I abhor paying high prices for clothes, but EJ's are no more expensive than any place of its kind. They just happen to have a lot of brands under the same roof.


  • Registered Users Posts: 101 ✭✭Capone79


    And all i'm saying is that you're spouting waffle that's factually incorrect. TKMaxx isn't a second hand shop.

    I abhor paying high prices for clothes, but EJ's are no more expensive than any place of its kind. They just happen to have a lot of brands under the same roof.

    Ok, name me another shop that has a lot of top brands under the same roof? And don’t say TK MAXX.

    You can get a quality pair of jeans in Topman NI for £25/30. EJ sells pairs anywhere from €90-€144. If Topman moved into Next. I would def spend my hard earned money in there, knowing I’m getting value for money.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 96 ✭✭sligoblue


    Capone79 wrote: »
    Ok, name me another shop that has a lot of top brands under the same roof? And don’t say TK MAXX.

    You can get a quality pair of jeans in Topman NI for £25/30. EJ sells pairs anywhere from €90-€144. If Topman moved into Next. I would def spend my hard earned money in there, knowing I’m getting value for money.

    I could be wrong, but don't topman sell own brand jeans and clothes?, I didn't think they sold super dry. Penny's and Dunne's sell good value jeans, if you want brands like superdry, you usually have to pay more than an own brand like Topman, Penny's or Dunne's.

    Next, River Island, Aware have all been to Sligo and offer clothes at less than EJ, they left (possibly only a matter of time for RI) but EJ is still there with his higher price clothes, so obviously he is doing something right.

    You sound pretty bitter about EJs, he seems to do a roaring trade for teenagers and boys in their early 20's, these would hardly be a group with loads of money.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,259 ✭✭✭Buford T Justice


    Capone79 wrote: »
    Ok, name me another shop that has a lot of top brands under the same roof? And don’t say TK MAXX.

    Why should I? Its nothing to do with your claim that he has the monopoly on all these designer brands - which is nonsense.

    Just because he happens to have a shop that holds a lot of designer brands, doesn't mean that he's a soon-to-be-evil-conglomerate-looking-to-rip-people-off with a monopoly on everything.

    He's worked very hard to build that business to what it is, and he does a roaring trade both online and locally and he deserves his success. Lets not forge the amount of local jobs he's created too.
    Capone79 wrote: »
    You can get a quality pair of jeans in Topman NI for £25/30. EJ sells pairs anywhere from €90-€144. If Topman moved into Next. I would def spend my hard earned money in there, knowing I’m getting value for money.

    Good for you. I choose to buy my stuff in pennys if I'm of a mood for some new kit, but I don't bemoan the success of a local business.


  • Registered Users Posts: 101 ✭✭Capone79


    sligoblue wrote: »
    I could be wrong, but don't topman sell own brand jeans and clothes?, I didn't think they sold super dry. Penny's and Dunne's sell good value jeans, if you want brands like superdry, you usually have to pay more than an own brand like Topman, Penny's or Dunne's.

    Next, River Island, Aware have all been to Sligo and offer clothes at less than EJ, they left (possibly only a matter of time for RI) but EJ is still there with his higher price clothes, so obviously he is doing something right.

    You sound pretty bitter about EJs, he seems to do a roaring trade for teenagers and boys in their early 20's, these would hardly be a group with loads of money.

    Topman and the other two you mentioned are nowhere near the same quality and fit of clothes. I gave Superdry as one example, there’s plenty more. Next and Aware left cause of greedy landlords, which forced them to increase prices.I’m not bitter at all, just would like some more competition.

    If he’s doing such a roaring trade why would he have to gallop down the street on a horse waving a sword about like a ejit. If you’re good enough, your product sells itself.


  • Registered Users Posts: 101 ✭✭Capone79





    Good for you. I choose to buy my stuff in pennys if I'm of a mood for some new kit, but I don't bemoan the success of a local business.

    Well that’s great, I suppose a dogooder such as yourself is happy with the state of the Retail Park at Carraroe.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,259 ✭✭✭Buford T Justice


    Capone79 wrote: »
    Topman and the other two you mentioned are nowhere near the same quality and fit of clothes. I gave Superdry as one example, there’s plenty more. Next and Aware left cause of greedy landlords, which forced them to increase prices.I’m not bitter at all, just would like some more competition.

    If he’s doing such a roaring trade why would he have to gallop down the street on a horse waving a sword about like a ejit. If you’re good enough, your product sells itself.

    So its the marketing style you don't like?
    Capone79 wrote: »
    Well that’s great, I suppose a dogooder such as yourself is happy with the state of the Retail Park at Carraroe.

    Careful, you're making dangerous assumptions about my character there.

    And no, the retail park is a joke, but that's been stifled by the chamber of commerce and is a whole different subject


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 96 ✭✭sligoblue


    Capone79 wrote: »
    Topman and the other two you mentioned are nowhere near the same quality and fit of clothes. I gave Superdry as one example, there’s plenty more. Next and Aware left cause of greedy landlords, which forced them to increase prices.I’m not bitter at all, just would like some more competition.

    If he’s doing such a roaring trade why would he have to gallop down the street on a horse waving a sword about like a ejit. If you’re good enough, your product sells itself.

    There is so much wrong with your posts, it's hard to know whether to just leave them there to let speak for themselves.

    You gave Topman as an example of a shop which should be here and that is real value for money compared to EJs, now you are saying they are nowhere near the quality of what EJ is selling. That is a strange argument to make in an effort to back up your point.

    There is lots of competition in the Next category, River Island, Addams, TK Max, Awear used to be there, Dunne's and Penny's. That's quite a few for a small town like Sligo. I have also heard that a lot of shops in Quayside and Johnstons court get rent free periods and reduced rent periods, then cut and run when rents go to market rate. This may not be true.

    As for galloping down the street, even Apple and Amazon, the biggest companies in the world spend hundreds of millions on advertising their products. If you want to see how effective that is for brand recognition, then look at the number of views on YouTube. A couple of weeks ago I heard the presenter of the Sunday Business show on Today FM commenting about how good EJs PR is, he was surprised that most is done "in house".


  • Registered Users Posts: 91 ✭✭mano79


    Capone79 wrote: »
    DV8 should move into Next, that’s if EJ AND HIS CRONIES won’t object. They’re the problem, plus greedy landlords. The CC are complaining about people shopping across the border in Enniskillen but who have they got resurfacing Ashlane??? Contractors from Enniskillen. Pot, kettle!

    Thats really is the problem with Sligo summed up up in one sentence. We never are happy to see a success story in our town. There is always one jealous begrudger :(

    Edited to say talking about your EJs comment. Your spot on about the CC just beggars belief


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,809 ✭✭✭✭Andy From Sligo


    mano79 wrote: »
    Thats really is the problem with Sligo summed up up in one sentence. We never are happy to see a success story in our town. There is always one jealous begrudger :(

    Edited to say talking about your EJs comment. Your spot on about the CC just beggars belief

    I think it's the Sligo chamber of commerce that would rather see people spend their money locally and shopping locally (whilst stifling who can or cannot sell something up at the retail park and other parts of town)

    The CC can go with whoever contractors they choose to go with who can offer the best price and/or best quality of work for the price in my opinion, and if that means going cross border so be it.

    I'd rather see that they are getting best value for money than someone on here or another boards thread saying have you seen how much Sligo cc are paying out for these repairs rather than trying to get it done at the best possible price from somewhere else ...


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,534 ✭✭✭Radharc na Sleibhte


    So, anywhere closing lately or......


  • Registered Users Posts: 9 Shelpy


    Buford T Justice wrote:

    "And no, the retail park is a joke, but that's been stifled by the chamber of commerce and is a whole different subject"

    A whole different subject you clearly know nothing about. There is some amount of idiotic comment made on this topic in this and other online fora by people who don't have the first clue what they are talking about. The Chamber of Commerce does not and has never made the rules about what can and cannot be sold in different areas of the town. That is solely the preserve of the elected public officials of the town. If you don't like it, vote different officials into office - the public is responsible for what officials they elect to local government, not the Chamber of Commerce.

    Apart from such a fundamental ignorance as mistaking who is responsible for making retail planning rules in the town, a separate issue is if you think it's a good idea to allow unrestricted retail planning? If so, you are arguing for putting the final nail in the coffin of the centre of a town already experiencing significant challenges. Unrestricted retail planning would ensure Sligo town centre becomes a totally dead ghost town of decay with far higher retail vacancy than already exists. Furthermore it would guarantee no chance of the centre block of the town (surrounding Tesco carpark) ever undergoing the already long overdue regeneration the town so badly needs. If retail planning is unrestricted the costs to develop or rent retail space on greenfield site outside town would be vastly lower than the respective costs for the badly needed brownfield redevelopment in the town centre.

    This is planning 101, and there is a huge weight of professional planning opinion produced over the past three decades throughout Ireland and the UK on how lax retail planning has contributed to the destruction of town centres, communities and the fabric of society, with particular impact on the most vulnerable in society. This is not rocket science or crystal ball gazing, lax retail planning has already been tried (along with lax residential development zoning) all over the UK and Ireland and the terrible results documented many times over. Planning might have a bad name but in the vast majority of cases that is not because the professional planning opinion was bad - it is because elected officials either ignored or didn't give enough weight to it when making decisions.

    While Sligo faces many challenges already, thankfully it has not suffered as badly as many other places due to this specific issue of lax out of town retail planning and with the continued maintenance of good planning practice (not a given, in the future local politicians could easily be elected who choose to ignore planning best practice) we have a better chance of the town centre being regenerated (it requires commercial investment which the people of the town or public authorities can't force to happen, but can create the right planning framework to make more likely) for the benefit of all. Once that is done, if there is then still commerical appetite for relaxation  of retail or other development outside the town centre then, and only then, should the people of Sligo via our elected officials grant private capital/commerical interests that privilege.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,809 ✭✭✭✭Andy From Sligo


    Shelpy wrote: »
    Buford T Justice wrote:

    "And no, the retail park is a joke, but that's been stifled by the chamber of commerce and is a whole different subject"

    A whole different subject you clearly know nothing about. There is some amount of idiotic comment made on this topic in this and other online fora by people who don't have the first clue what they are talking about. The Chamber of Commerce does not and has never made the rules about what can and cannot be sold in different areas of the town. That is solely the preserve of the elected public officials of the town. If you don't like it, vote different officials into office - the public is responsible for what officials they elect to local government, not the Chamber of Commerce.

    Apart from such a fundamental ignorance as mistaking who is responsible for making retail planning rules in the town, a separate issue is if you think it's a good idea to allow unrestricted retail planning? If so, you are arguing for putting the final nail in the coffin of the centre of a town already experiencing significant challenges. Unrestricted retail planning would ensure Sligo town centre becomes a totally dead ghost town of decay with far higher retail vacancy than already exists. Furthermore it would guarantee no chance of the centre block of the town (surrounding Tesco carpark) ever undergoing the already long overdue regeneration the town so badly needs. If retail planning is unrestricted the costs to develop or rent retail space on greenfield site outside town would be vastly lower than the respective costs for the badly needed brownfield redevelopment in the town centre.

    This is planning 101, and there is a huge weight of professional planning opinion produced over the past three decades throughout Ireland and the UK on how lax retail planning has contributed to the destruction of town centres, communities and the fabric of society, with particular impact on the most vulnerable in society. This is not rocket science or crystal ball gazing, lax retail planning has already been tried (along with lax residential development zoning) all over the UK and Ireland and the terrible results documented many times over. Planning might have a bad name but in the vast majority of cases that is not because the professional planning opinion was bad - it is because elected officials either ignored or didn't give enough weight to it when making decisions.

    While Sligo faces many challenges already, thankfully it has not suffered as badly as many other places due to this specific issue of lax out of town retail planning and with the continued maintenance of good planning practice (not a given, in the future local politicians could easily be elected who choose to ignore planning best practice) we have a better chance of the town centre being regenerated (it requires commercial investment which the people of the town or public authorities can't force to happen, but can create the right planning framework to make more likely) for the benefit of all. Once that is done, if there is then still commerical appetite for relaxation  of retail or other development outside the town centre then, and only then, should the people of Sligo via our elected officials grant private capital/commerical interests that privilege.


    OK - well looks am going to try and drag up some old posts and information on when I think COC blocked ARGOS from coming to town for years because they wanted to set up in cararoe retail park and COC kept lodging complaints with An Bord Pleanála saying that they wanted them to open up in the Town centre instead - and i'm almost sure they enforced the Sligo environ plan as well to dictate what could and not be sold up at the cararoe retail park ... they certainly didnt help try and get that plan overturned anyway ... just interested in their members right in the town centre itself I felt its been and feck every other retail business that wanted to operate a little out of the town centre. - a Chamber of Commerce should be for all retail sectors in town not just a select few in the centre of town. -

    Regardles of who came up and kept enforcing the plans throughout the years and objected to businesses starting up just out of town centre and what can be sold or not sold at Carraroe well done - every other satellite towns around Sligo have welcomed new businesses into their towns wherever they wanted to go ... and whoever is responsible has suffocated Sligo and thats why its top of the league for empty retail units everywhere in the town (and retail park)


  • Registered Users Posts: 9 Shelpy


    OK - well looks am going to try and drag up some old posts and information on when I think COC blocked ARGOS from coming to town for years because they wanted to set up in cararoe retail park and COC kept lodging complaints with An Bord Pleanála saying that they wanted them to open up in the Town centre instead - and i'm almost sure they enforced the Sligo environ plan as well to dictate what could and not be sold up at the cararoe retail park ... they certainly didnt help try and get that plan overturned anyway ... just interested in their members right in the town centre itself I felt its been and feck every other retail business that wanted to operate a little out of the town centre. - a Chamber of Commerce should be for all retail sectors in town not just a select few in the centre of town. -

    Regardles of who came up and kept enforcing the plans throughout the years and objected to businesses starting up just out of town centre and what can be sold or not sold at Carraroe well done - every other satellite towns around Sligo have welcomed new businesses into their towns wherever they wanted to go ... and whoever is responsible has suffocated Sligo and thats why its top of the league for empty retail units everywhere in the town (and retail park)

    You haven't got a _clue_ what you are talking about and have said several things which are demonstrably false ("every other town has welcomed new businesses into their towns wherever they wanted to go") Andy. I can show you reams and reams of planning decisions from towns elsewhere in County Sligo, the north-west of Ireland generally, or any place or region you so choose in Ireland or the UK which proves your statement false.


    Regarding the retail park the Chamber of Commerce in Sligo (among others), simply asked for the rules as explicitly laid down by the public authorities (who represent the people) to be enforced when those rules were flagrantly breached by business seeking to flout public rules (made on behalf of the people) to increase their own private profit. If you don't like those public rules, then it is entirely within the right and only within the ability of the public authorities to alter those rules. 


    Not only an Board Pleanala but also The High Court made this abundantly clear in relation to the retail park issue in Sligo. These are both organs of the state, representing the people.


    Sligo Retail Park operates under parent planning permission granted by Sligo County Council on 1st August, 2003, for a retail warehouse park incorporating 12 units, and containing a DIY store and garden centre, leisure unit and fast food restaurant. The initial planning permission for Unit 5 was for leisure use, but by order of 26th October, 2004, the parent permission was altered to substitute the use for Unit 5 as a retail warehouse and which permitted an increase in the mezzanine floor area of the unit. That planning permission, which issued on appeal by the Board, contained condition 18 which provides as follows:-


    “The retail element of the proposed development shall be restricted to retail warehousing development only. In this regard, the range of goods to be sold in the retail units shall be restricted to bulky household goods and goods generally sold in bulk (as defined in Annexe 1 of the Retail Planning Guidelines for Planning Authorities issued by the Department of the Environment and Local Government in December 2000), including carpets and floor coverings, furniture, electrical goods, computers and DIY items, including garden equipment.”


    Condition 18 in the relevant planning permission identified the range of goods permitted to be sold in Unit 5 as “bulky household goods and goods generally sold in bulk”. How one is to understand the goods of this type is specifically referable to the definition in Annexe 1 of the Retail Planning Guidelines issued in December 2000. The definitions in those Guidelines are of note:-


    “Retail Warehouse – A large single store specialising in the sale of bulky household goods such as carpets, furniture and electrical goods, and bulky DIY items, catering mainly for car-borne customers and often in out of centre locations.Bulky goods – goods generally sold from retail warehouses where DIY goods or goods such as flat pack furniture are of such a size that they would normally be taken away by car and not being manageable by customers travelling by foot, cycle or bus or that large floor areas would be required to display them e.g. furniture in rooms sets, or not large individually but part of a collective purchase which would be bulky e.g. wallpaper, paint.”


    As an internet commentator without a clue what they are talking about (we are not short of such people!) you are free of course to not spend your time talking absolute nonsense on internet forums and instead go and get a degree in retail planning to educate yourself about the reasons for public planning policy. If that seems too much of a challenge, then maybe at the next election you could go out and put up posters for some offspring of the gombeen politicians we had in the past in Ireland who favour ignoring planning best practice - then you don't have to bother to understand planning which is an entire professional discipline in itself - you can just elect somebody who will ignore it without even attempting to understand it!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,809 ✭✭✭✭Andy From Sligo


    Shelpy wrote: »
    You haven't got a _clue_ what you are talking about and have said several things which are demonstrably false ("every other town has welcomed new businesses into their towns wherever they wanted to go") Andy. I can show you reams and reams of planning decisions from towns elsewhere in County Sligo, the north-west of Ireland generally, or any place or region you so choose in Ireland or the UK which proves your statement false.


    Regarding the retail park the Chamber of Commerce in Sligo (among others), simply asked for the rules as explicitly laid down by the public authorities (who represent the people) to be enforced when those rules were flagrantly breached by business seeking to flout public rules (made on behalf of the people) to increase their own private profit. If you don't like those public rules, then it is entirely within the right and only within the ability of the public authorities to alter those rules. 


    Not only an Board Pleanala but also The High Court made this abundantly clear in relation to the retail park issue in Sligo. These are both organs of the state, representing the people.


    Sligo Retail Park operates under parent planning permission granted by Sligo County Council on 1st August, 2003, for a retail warehouse park incorporating 12 units, and containing a DIY store and garden centre, leisure unit and fast food restaurant. The initial planning permission for Unit 5 was for leisure use, but by order of 26th October, 2004, the parent permission was altered to substitute the use for Unit 5 as a retail warehouse and which permitted an increase in the mezzanine floor area of the unit. That planning permission, which issued on appeal by the Board, contained condition 18 which provides as follows:-


    “The retail element of the proposed development shall be restricted to retail warehousing development only. In this regard, the range of goods to be sold in the retail units shall be restricted to bulky household goods and goods generally sold in bulk (as defined in Annexe 1 of the Retail Planning Guidelines for Planning Authorities issued by the Department of the Environment and Local Government in December 2000), including carpets and floor coverings, furniture, electrical goods, computers and DIY items, including garden equipment.”


    Condition 18 in the relevant planning permission identified the range of goods permitted to be sold in Unit 5 as “bulky household goods and goods generally sold in bulk”. How one is to understand the goods of this type is specifically referable to the definition in Annexe 1 of the Retail Planning Guidelines issued in December 2000. The definitions in those Guidelines are of note:-


    “Retail Warehouse – A large single store specialising in the sale of bulky household goods such as carpets, furniture and electrical goods, and bulky DIY items, catering mainly for car-borne customers and often in out of centre locations.Bulky goods – goods generally sold from retail warehouses where DIY goods or goods such as flat pack furniture are of such a size that they would normally be taken away by car and not being manageable by customers travelling by foot, cycle or bus or that large floor areas would be required to display them e.g. furniture in rooms sets, or not large individually but part of a collective purchase which would be bulky e.g. wallpaper, paint.”


    As an internet commentator without a clue what they are talking about (we are not short of such people!) you are free of course to not spend your time talking absolute nonsense on internet forums and instead go and get a degree in retail planning to educate yourself about the reasons for public planning policy. If that seems too much of a challenge, then maybe at the next election you could go out and put up posters for some offspring of the gombeen politicians we had in the past in Ireland who favour ignoring planning best practice - then you don't have to bother to understand planning which is an entire professional discipline in itself - you can just elect somebody who will ignore it without even attempting to understand it!

    naw, your grand I dont need a degree in retail planning - sounds boring .
    need to take a paracetamol now after all that you copied and pasted (apologies if you factually didnt copy and paste by the way)

    Look the way I see it (and sorry if I am not factually correct) I seem to recall that COC attempted in no way whatsoever to get the rules overturned for the conditions of what the retail park could and could not sell and i think they should have done , in fact they were pro in keeping all retail shops in the town centre itself - now i think that the way sligo town centre is laid out with its tiny streets and bad access for delivery vehicles and parking dotted all over the place I think all you can do apart from flattening the whole of Sligo Town centre and starting from scratch is to build outwards and use the use of out of town retail parks and lift this stupid environ plan

    ... but so many people are frightened that if they do that then no-one will bother to go and shop in Sligo town centre ever again and it would become a ghost town. I dont think so, but obviously some people have seen it happen in *some* towns and think Sligo would go the same way and thats why they have played safe (and stifled retail progress in Sligo) because maybe their Chrystal ball worked better than mine.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,819 ✭✭✭✭peasant


    nnow i think that the way sligo town centre is laid out with its tiny streets and bad access for delivery vehicles and parking dotted all over the place I think all you can do apart from flattening the whole of Sligo Town centre and starting from scratch is to build outwards and use the use of out of town retail parks and lift this stupid environ plan


    or ...

    ...you could make the huge car parking area at the retail park into a park & ride facility and have buses going from there into/through town and back on a constant loop.


    But that would be creative and might actually work...so why bother:D


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,809 ✭✭✭✭Andy From Sligo


    peasant wrote: »
    or ...

    ...you could make the huge car parking area at the retail park into a park & ride facility and have buses going from there into/through town and back on a constant loop.


    But that would be creative and might actually work...so why bother:D

    such a waste all those empty car parking spaces especially on the Currys side of the retail park. - if the restrictions were lifted up there I could see some more retail units being built up there, but as it is a lot of the units are empty.

    If restrictions were lifted would love to see a big Tesco store up that way, and they could also still leave a Tesco store in the Arcade still, Dunnes have 2 stores in Town


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,339 ✭✭✭T-Bird


    peasant wrote: »
    or ...

    ...you could make the huge car parking area at the retail park into a park & ride facility and have buses going from there into/through town and back on a constant loop.


    But that would be creative and might actually work...so why bother:D

    Was this or some bus service done when it originally opened?


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,819 ✭✭✭✭peasant


    not that I'm aware of


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