Enniscorthy

lolli

cython wrote: »

No need to pay over the odds for that delivery when a surprisingly large amount of their stuff is dispatched from a warehouse in Cork!

I got free delivery. It was was 30 something euro for next day delivery. I wouldnt have paid that :-)

Judgement Day

The Enniscorthy Guardian office in Castle Street closed for the last time today and I understand that the two staff members have been redeployed to Wexford.

Cantona's Collars

Judgement Day wrote: »

The Enniscorthy Guardian office in Castle Street closed for the last time today and I understand that the two staff members have been redeployed to Wexford.

Another empty premises for the list so.

Makes sense though,what's the point in having an office with just 2 staff.I've never really considered The Guardian as an 'Enniscorthy' paper,much of it's news had a Gorey/Wexford bias.The Echo seems to have much more Enniscorthy centric articles & features.

UpHill

sundula wrote: »

I think in Enniscorthy's case even if the rates were zero the town would still do no business. The town is a prisoner of its geography, its Town Council and its established business families.

A. We have a well stocked and developed Wexford Town to the south, a Gorey in a similar position to the north with Arklow and Dublin not to far beyond that. Also the layout of the town centre does not seem suitable for a trading town, its been disjointed over the years.

B, The Town Council have represented us badly, the quality of councillor has been poor and their focus has never been about jobs or business. If they cant pave it then they will put a speed bump on it.

C. Some of the long established business people in the town have been against any form of progress or developments of a retail nature which might have any impact on their own kingdoms.

Agree with most of that, pity to see TK Max opening in Wexford instead of Enniscorthy - would have been a great draw to town. The amount of zebra crossing in town drive me mad! Unfortunately in reality the town council does represent the town - if people keep voting for people who have no interest in working what else would you expect. I know this has been argued here before but I really would not like to see Tesco come to town, they will draw zero into the town itself. Enniscorthy needs to find a niche - it did have a decent name for independant women's fashion retailers in the past. Rates is a real issue but overstated I think for many small shops in town, have stayed the same for the last 5 years, nearly half been paid by 50 big business's in the county. I could be wrong but I think water prob. costs business as much as rates for many places.

A big issue I think Enniscorthy has from someone who didn't grow up in the town is that many people from outside see it as dirty and grubby. Despite the best efforts of the local tidy towns the amount of litter around the place is terrible - really brings the tone of the place down. Breaks my heart to see rubbish thrown around after Saturday night down along the river, it has huge potential. Or the playground up by St Aidans/Petitts - obviously cost a ton of money to put in but scumbags destroy it every weekend even though there are houses all around looking into it. Blame who you like but until locals start saying enough is enough it's not going to change.

barney 20v

UpHill wrote: »

Agree with most of that, pity to see TK Max opening in Wexford instead of Enniscorthy - would have been a great draw to town. The amount of zebra crossing in town drive me mad! Unfortunately in reality the town council does represent the town - if people keep voting for people who have no interest in working what else would you expect. I know this has been argued here before but I really would not like to see Tesco come to town, they will draw zero into the town itself. Enniscorthy needs to find a niche - it did have a decent name for independant women's fashion retailers in the past. Rates is a real issue but overstated I think for many small shops in town, have stayed the same for the last 5 years, nearly half been paid by 50 big business's in the county. I could be wrong but I think water prob. costs business as much as rates for many places.

A big issue I think Enniscorthy has from someone who didn't grow up in the town is that many people from outside see it as dirty and grubby. Despite the best efforts of the local tidy towns the amount of litter around the place is terrible - really brings the tone of the place down. Breaks my heart to see rubbish thrown around after Saturday night down along the river, it has huge potential. Or the playground up by St Aidans/Petitts - obviously cost a ton of money to put in but scumbags destroy it every weekend even though there are houses all around looking into it. Blame who you like but until locals start saying enough is enough it's not going to change.

The locals are a major part of the problem,always will be

Cantona's Collars

I've brought up the problem down along the prom regarding litter before.It's a regular haunt of boy racers & the amount of rubbish they leave behind is disgraceful.Everyone knows it's them,before they park up of an evening there's little or no rubbish,the next morning the place is like a tip.Perhaps a bit more enforcement of littering laws by Gardai & a few on the spot fines would make them use bins.

Regarding the playground at the Fairgreen,there's cctv installed yet nobody has been brought to task for vandalism,even though some of the morons wrote their names on the equipment.

kneemos

Speaking of eyesores the fountain in the Abbey Square is absolutely filthy,can't remember the last time I saw it working,perhaps demolition sooner rather than later might be a good idea or at least give it a clean.

sundula

kneemos wrote: »

Speaking of eyesores the fountain in the Abbey Square is absolutely filthy,can't remember the last time I saw it working,perhaps demolition sooner rather than later might be a good idea or at least give it a clean.

I thought that was gone. Waste of money, time and effort from the start.

Judgement Day

sundula wrote: »

I thought that was gone. Waste of money, time and effort from the start.

Give them time would you - they were talking about moving the fountain back in 2006.

http://countywexford.blogspot.ie/2009/07/tomb-of-unknown-plumber.html

kneemos

Seamus Rafter could have been placed in a more accessible spot even if you want to have a look it's a four lane sprint.

Cantona's Collars

kneemos wrote: »

Seamus Rafter could have been placed in a more accessible spot even if you want to have a look it's a four lane sprint.

Won't be too bad when the bridge is gone,I reckon 2 lanes will be redundant.

Heard on the grapevine that several more shops are planning to close their doors for the last time in the near future.It looks like the Polish store in the Market Square is already gone.

Judgement Day

zerks wrote: »

Won't be too bad when the bridge is gone,I reckon 2 lanes will be redundant.

Heard on the grapevine that several more shops are planning to close their doors for the last time in the near future.It looks like the Polish store in the Market Square is already gone.

The Polish store is gone and I'm surprised that it lasted as long as it did. Also the flower shop opposite the cathedral appears to be gone. Jan/Feb is always a bad time for closures - expect more.

Cantona's Collars

Poor Xmas trade in the town will be the final nail in the coffin for many stores in the town.Crowds flocked to Carlow,Wexford etc. as they had big name stores to attract people whereas Enniscorthy doesn't.

jpb1974

Just spotted this -

https://www.facebook.com/GetShopsIntoEnniscorthy

Not much going on except a bunch of likes and moaning about Christmas lights.

Cantona's Collars

I said in an earlier post that several shops were to close but according to that Facebook page, 13 are due to shut down.If it's true that'll be the death knell for the town as I can't see it recovering commercially after a blow like that.

St Senan

I was reading some of the comments on FB. If the Towns people stop voting these same Councilors in every election and let someone with a bit of Cop on get voted in the town would not be in the state its in.

TheChevron

What a shíte FB page.

Judgement Day

TheChevron wrote: »

What a shíte FB page.

Why don't you start a better one then? At least they are kicking up and that's better than the low-level bitching that goes on everywhere in the town.

barney 20v

TheChevron wrote: »

What a shíte FB page.

I agree' on one PIC they have "fat cats out" and the main PIC is tescos..... Mixed signals etc etc

paulaa

I've just had a look at the FB page and a couple of things stand out.
First they need to moderate the comments and not name business people in town or they could end up getting sued.

The other thing is they need to drop the chip off their shoulders. They talk about attracting big businesses to town yet go on about "big shots" and other cap in hand " nonsense. What company would want to hire locals with that attitude !!

Cantona's Collars

The FB page has good intentions but as Paulaa said,some stuff needs to be moderated better.

As I drove to the town this morning at roughly 11am,I reckon at most there were 20 people between the Square & Rafter St. You'd see more in a village like Camolin at that hour.

No shops,no cinema,no theatre,no playzone,2 half arsed playgrounds,nothing for teenagers to do (teenage disco's etc. gone) Welcome to Enniscorthy folks.don't forget to tell your friends.

It seems the longer this thread goes on,the more depressing it becomes but the thing is,there's very little to lift the gloom over the town.

Judgement Day

I made my first brief visit to the Duffry playground yesterday and while, from the road, it looks fine, on closer inspection the usual graffiti, dirt and poor maintenance are evident. The adjacent pubic seating, which I have previously mentioned, has to be seen to be believed. Photos shortly. :mad:

TheChevron

Judgement Day wrote: »

Why don't you start a better one then? At least they are kicking up and that's better than the low-level bitching that goes on everywhere in the town.

Low-level tit-for-tat bítching on the internet, I get enough of that here, thanks.

Oh and that flower shop is far from closed, you love the gloom so much you can't even wait til a shop is closed before damning it

Judgement Day

TheChevron wrote: »

Low-level tit-for-tat bítching on the internet, I get enough of that here, thanks.

Oh and that flower shop is far from closed, you love the gloom so much you can't even wait til a shop is closed before damning it

If you care to read my original post more here http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=82468723&postcount=1305 more carefully, you will note that I used the word appears in italics as I couldn't be certain.

Why you think I like gloom I don't know - I call it as I see it and I'm utterly depressed by the state of the town. Closed-up shops, broken glass, chewing gum, dog ****e, vomit and zombies everywhere. Truly I've never lived anywhere more depressing and I've lived in County Leitrim and Bray!

Sully

A reminder folks, to please keep things civil. If you have an issue with a post, report it. If that fails, contact one of the mods. If you have an issue with a poster, ignore them.

Due to the damage that can be caused by speculating about whether a business is closed or may be closing, a general Boards policy on the Regional Forums at least is that until its confirmed by a reliable source you can provide us here, than don't speculate. This isn't in the forum charter as its never cropped up here as a problem, but I am adding it in now so everybody is clear going forward.

Any problems, questions, or remarks on this post please send me a PM.

Cheers.

Ian7

Dam, I lost the reply I had typed up,

Anyway, the bones of my post were...

Happy New Year to one and all!

UpHill mentioned on the previous page about finding a niche for Enniscorthy. This is something I have been thinking strongly about for awhile.

What I am wondering is why the utmost importance and emphasis is always placed on retail, and in particular, franchise retail. I understand trends and what-not, but if we are to be realistic, we just can't compete with Wexford's "high street" shops and Gorey's hugh extended population. We need to find our niche and promote the ****e of it.

I could name numerous areas and markets such as Arts, Crafts, I.T., Entertainment, Industry etc. but i'm sure there are many, many more. oh, and also mentioned on the previous page was independent retailers but as we know, the rates issue really needs to be addressed.

UpHill

Saw a stat in the papers, will try dig out the link, but 75% of the business in Wexford pay rates of less than 5K and that's a county wide average so Enniscorthy is prob less . An issue yes but the real issue is the lack of foot fall. If rates were cut in half in the morning is 2.5K really going to save a business? It could well do, I'll leave that up to people who know better than me. None of us like paying taxes but they are a fact of life. Are we getting value is another question, however due to Enniscorthy's position it's likely that it is being subsidised by the rest of the county/country and also getting money via Rapid etc

Cantona's Collars

Jackser on SE Radio in the morning discussing ongoing calls to reopen the cinema.

paulaa

It has annoyed me for a long time that our councillors seem to concentrate on small things that will bring them votes rather than making any serious effort to get industries into to the area.

Shops and cinemas are all very well but if unemployment is high people don't have the money to use them. They need to start looking at the bigger picture and not jump on every one -wheeled bandwagon that comes along to make them look good.

barney 20v

paulaa wrote: »

It has annoyed me for a long time that our councillors seem to concentrate on small things that will bring them votes rather than making any serious effort to get industries into to the area.

Shops and cinemas are all very well but if unemployment is high people don't have the money to use them. They need to start looking at the bigger picture and not jump on every one -wheeled bandwagon that comes along to make them look good.

I agree with what your saying but in fairness, if the wexford TDs could not attract jobs/industry to the town how do you expect the people who rubber stamped Fr Ted standard pedestrian crossings all over the town to do anything about jobs?? the town council is a joke. jobs for the boys.

Enniscorthy is a joke of a town and fast heading for ruin.. also the councillors you have are the ones you deserve... after all the town people voted them in!