Disappointment with Ennis UDC

minnow

ger664 wrote: »

There is no way the UDC is going to provide free parking in Ennis let alone invest heavily in creating a managable traffic flow for the town by completely modernising the flow and layout of the town. Look how long its taking to build the much needed inner relief road. Its was planned years ago and it still is not complete.

From Clare FM:
3.7m Spent on 'Road To Nowhere'
It has emerged that Clare County Council has spent almost four million euro on a 'road to nowhere.'
A failure by Shannon Development to complete the route means that the road on the outskirts of the town has not been used since works on it stopped over two years ago.
Clare County Council has admitted spending 3.71million euro on a 450 metre stretch of road at the Information Age Park on the outskirts of Ennis
However, as Shannon Development has not completed the last 200m of the route, the road currently sees no traffic.
The cost of the project. works out at over 825 thousand euro per 100m.
A report in today's national newspapers quotes a Shannon Development spokeswoman as saying that a date has not been set for the completion of Northern Inner Relief Road in the Information Age Park but that it is part of their five-year development plan.

Pretty scary as another of yesterday's stories suggested that Shannon Development might get nuked in the Budget.

ger664

Its probably off topic and even wrong forum but there is another one off the kilrush road roudabout for the new National School. Which Remember the fiasco of changing the layout of Parnell Street Car Park only for it to be ripped up again a couple of months later to facilitae the flood scheme walls.

No one got fired because of this and most likely they will get promoted or a big fat send off.

This country is broke because of the way public service departments operate, communicate and delivery services.

Balagan

minnow wrote: »

From Clare FM:
3.7m Spent on 'Road To Nowhere'
It has emerged that Clare County Council has spent almost four million euro on a 'road to nowhere.'
A failure by Shannon Development to complete the route means that the road on the outskirts of the town has not been used since works on it stopped over two years ago.
Clare County Council has admitted spending 3.71million euro on a 450 metre stretch of road at the Information Age Park on the outskirts of Ennis
However, as Shannon Development has not completed the last 200m of the route, the road currently sees no traffic.
The cost of the project. works out at over 825 thousand euro per 100m.
A report in today's national newspapers quotes a Shannon Development spokeswoman as saying that a date has not been set for the completion of Northern Inner Relief Road in the Information Age Park but that it is part of their five-year development plan.

Pretty scary as another of yesterday's stories suggested that Shannon Development might get nuked in the Budget.

How many businesses have been set up in the Information Age Park and how many people are employed there? Even before the recession really took hold, the whole project seemed like pie in the sky. The misuse of Our Lady's Hospital site is criminal. They have crowded the Midwestern Hospital site with Lego buildings as if we were living in Hong Kong without a spare parcel of land on which to build a hospital while Our Lady's Hospital, a beautiful site, is wasted. We're really broken.

Lady Chatterton

Balagan wrote: »

The misuse of Our Lady's Hospital site is criminal. They have crowded the Midwestern Hospital site with Lego buildings as if we were living in Hong Kong without a spare parcel of land on which to build a hospital while Our Lady's Hospital, a beautiful site, is wasted. We're really broken.

I agree that the Our Lady's site was a wasted opportunity, it would have been an excellent site for a new hospital or a third level institution. However, there was never the will to have Ennis General upgraded even when there was money in the country to do it

Lady Chatterton

minnow wrote: »

From Clare FM:
3.7m Spent on 'Road To Nowhere'

A report in today's national newspapers quotes a Shannon Development spokeswoman as saying that a date has not been set for the completion of Northern Inner Relief Road in the Information Age Park but that it is part of their five-year development plan.

Article added to thread

Another €4m spent on road to nowhere


Gordon Deegan and Paul Melia


Friday November 18 2011

A LOCAL authority spent almost €4m on a road to nowhere which hasn't been open to traffic since it was completed more than two years ago.

Clare County Council yesterday admitted spending €3.71m on a 450-metre stretch of road leading to the Information Age Park in Ennis, but the road is not finished because Shannon Development hasn't completed the last 200 metres.

It is the second 'road to nowhere' that has emerged recently.

In 2007, Carlow County Council was sharply criticised after it gave orders for the construction of a relief road around part of the town, even though it did not own all of the land.

The road, nearly 1.5km long, was supposed to cost €5.5m and open up lands for development.

But when it was nearly completed, it emerged it did not own the final parcel of land.

The road has since opened.

Yesterday Freedom of Information figures showed that €2.78m was spent on costs associated with the Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) for the lands.

Indefensible

Member of Clare County Council, Cllr Brian Meaney (Green), said: "€3.7m of public money spent and nothing to show for it. It is indefensible and the fault lies squarely with Shannon Development due to its failure to complete the route."

Shannon Development yesterday could not put a date on when the works will commence.

Shannon Development contributed €850,000 toward the council's costs.

- Gordon Deegan and Paul Melia

Irish Independent

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/budget/another-euro4m-spent-on-road-to-nowhere-2939066.html

CptSternn

In all fairness, even if they complete the road there are virtually no businesses in the park anyway.

The rent and rates are way expensive there and there is still no proper high speed fibre connections in the whole town, so how exactly are they planning on attracting any digital age businesses to the area when the costs are high and there is no proper infrastructure to support the very businesses they need to attract?

Whats sad is during the boom years FF spent millions setting up MANS in select FF towns and villages. To date, most of them are not even being used and we missed out on that as well.

Shangoes

+1 on pedestrianization. Just make the left turn a right turn at the Queens, bring traffic through the car parks and you are at most a 30 second walk to O'Connell St at all times. Would improve traffic in my opinion and the atmosphere in the town a great deal. One of the strengths Ennis has is it's medieval feel, pedestrianization would showcase that. Instead of trying to block any improvements in the town, retailers should be trying everything to improve their trade. Longer opening hours, better prices and choice and they might just win back some of us that mostly shop in Limerick or Galway

dr.fuzzenstein

Shangoes wrote: »

+1 on pedestrianization. Just make the left turn a right turn at the Queens, bring traffic through the car parks and you are at most a 30 second walk to O'Connell St at all times. Would improve traffic in my opinion and the atmosphere in the town a great deal. One of the strengths Ennis has is it's medieval feel, pedestrianization would showcase that. Instead of trying to block any improvements in the town, retailers should be trying everything to improve their trade. Longer opening hours, better prices and choice and they might just win back some of us that mostly shop in Limerick or Galway

Well said, but since your proposal is logical, workable and instantly makes sense to all but the most braindead, it will never happen.
Ennis is stuck in the 80's when it comes to doing business.
Shops closed for lunch or a half day on Saturday, so went in today to get a pair of tires (oh, we're out of tires, can you come back Tuesday, well, since I work 8 to 5 in Limerick, no), get my headlamps alligned (flat out refused unless my NCT was in 5 minutes) and buy some draft excluders for the door (well, just the rubber part, oh we don't sell those separate, you have to buy the whole part, that'll be fiddy please, no thanks) , complete washout, so will have to get all that in Limerick during the week, not going back next Saturday to waste yet another day.
Ennis is ok to buy shoes, spuds, chicken, milk, tomatoes and brillopads, everything else, forget it.

Shangoes

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

(oh, we're out of tires, can you come back Tuesday, well, since I work 8 to 5 in Limerick, no)

I once suggested to a retailer, who was giving out about the lack of trade during the week, to open late on a Thursday and Friday to try and catch some of the people like yourself. He just wouldn't believe people do anything after 6pm. :rolleyes:
I'm currently up in Blackrock in Dublin, in a way similar enough in size to Ennis, a lot of the shops are open until 9pm Thursday and Friday and 10-6 Sundays. The way they see it, rent rates and bills are fixed every month so may as well make the most of the shop.

Akrasia

A lot of the retailers in ennis don't seem to want my business, they never open when I'm in town trying to spend my money.

As far as I'm concerned retail trading hours are from 9am to 6 pm monday to saturday, anything else is providing an additional service, anything less is just driving away customers.

I have 2 small kids so I'm up at 7 most days and would love to be able to go into town to do my shopping at 9am but there's no point as most of the shops refuse to open before 10am week days, then a lot of them close for lunch at arbitrary times during the day, and lots of shops close early on saturdays.

WTF
I'd genuinely like to spend my money locally but its just a pain sometimes.

Re the pedestrianisation idea, it's blindingly obvious that abbey and o connell street should be car free. The route is already there. Allow traffic over the bridge and re-route it through abbey street car park where they can either turn right towards the tech or go through to parnell street car park. The road coming from tescos can feed left over the bridge or through to abbey street car park. Sorted. no need to spend much money.

Ennis is not too small for pedestrianisation, i lived in a small town in Holland that had lots of pedestrianisation and it was a lovely quality of life and the shopping streets were thronged with people who were delighted to be there instead of cars using the city centre as a short cut

User Friendly

1 question for you,

Did you shop in abbey street,o O'Connell street last christmas eve?

if you did then you would see why the town centre is not pedestrianised.

ollaetta

User Friendly wrote: »

Did you shop in abbey street,o O'Connell street last christmas eve?

if you did then you would see why the town centre is not pedestrianised.

Have to ask the obvious question, why?

dr.fuzzenstein

User Friendly wrote: »

1 question for you,

Did you shop in abbey street,o O'Connell street last christmas eve?

if you did then you would see why the town centre is not pedestrianised.

I remember walking around thinking "isn't it great not to be splashed, shoved into the road, elbowed and having to walk around groups of people blocking the two foot wide excuse for a footpath".
I REALLY don't see why cars HAVE to be on Abbey Street/ O'Connel Street.
I just don't. It makes no sense, it's like sharing your bed with a snake, unnecessary, scary and eventually you will get bitten in the ass.
It's like saying "I prefer riding my bike without a saddle", just making things deliberatley difficult and painful.
Saying that those two streets MUST have cars in them is like saying the Earth is flat.
Patently and obviously wrong, to such an extent that I can only wonder why anyone would say it.
It is either lack of intelligence that would make anyone say something so absurd and ludicrous, but it's hard to imagine that such a person would be allowed out unsupervised, or whoever says it knows bloody well it's bollocks, but obviously has other motives for saying so, but since I see zero benefit in these streets being full of cars and shoppers at the same time, the idea must have come from the shroom society.

Shangoes

ollaetta wrote: »

Have to ask the obvious question, why?

+1 on the why?

I actually can't think of a reason why not. Logical arguments would be that it slows traffic (rerouting traffic would increase average speed IMO, get rid of the left turn at the queens; merging/pedestrians at the height; merging at the Cathedral) reduces parking (few loading bay spots but people pulling in/out slows traffic, maybe 10 cars at most difference), disabled access (streets are not wheelchair/disable friendly at the minute!)... struggling to thing of any more, feel free to tell me!

I get the feeling that the worry is that if it happened the streets would look empty, stopping people from coming to Ennis for shopping or something. The streets are only look busy at minute because they are choked with traffic and the footpaths are too narrow for people to pass each other. I think any change in footfall is down to that many of the vested interests in the town are about 20 years behind the times more than anything else!

Johnboy1951

(streets are not wheelchair/disable friendly at the minute!)

That is not the only consideration ..... there is the question of distance to be travelled.
There are a large number of people who cannot walk very far, due to age, disability, medical or other reasons ...... how would they be catered for?
Presently they can be dropped at their destination/shop, and picked up again ..... what happens if there is no traffic allowed? ...... IMO, they go elsewhere ......

Shangoes

Disabled parking at back of Dunnes, Abbey St carpark, Parnell St carpark, Temple gate, the one in off the market. 50 meters max from ANY shop in town. Wide, properly paved streets with no traffic would actually make things much easier and safer for such people.

dr.fuzzenstein

Shangoes wrote: »

Disabled parking at back of Dunnes, Abbey St carpark, Parnell St carpark, Temple gate, the one in off the market. 50 meters max from ANY shop in town. Wide, properly paved streets with no traffic would actually make things much easier and safer for such people.

Exactly. And how come it works in thousands of other placed all over the world?

Shangoes

I think most of the opposition to this is down to plain misinformation spread for whatever reason. Like anything, it is not a silver bullet that will solve all problems but I cant see it doing any harm if implemented properly, especially if it was part of a program of events (€5 Fridays, street festivals, on street cafes etc etc). It could be the makings of a vibrant town centre.

User Friendly

ollaetta wrote: »

Have to ask the obvious question, why?

So you didnt shop in Ennis last Xmas eve then,if you had shopped in ennis you would have seen how few people were walking the streets, The local retailers dont want the streets pedestrianised and they should be listened to.

Shangoes

User Friendly wrote: »

So you didnt shop in Ennis last Xmas eve then,if you had shopped in ennis you would have seen how few people were walking the streets, The local retailers dont want the streets pedestrianised and they should be listened to.

I did and I didn't notice that. Any time they have been pedestrianised I've felt more of a festival atmosphere in the town, stopping having a chat with people I hadn't seen in a long time, was great.

I still cant see why they don't the want it pedestrianised and shouldn't they be listening to their customers?

dr.fuzzenstein

To me it's the difference between this:



And something that could look like this:



Obviously it won't look quite like this, but O'Connel Square could be a nice, open space with some greenery, trees, places to sit down, it would be really nice when they play the trad music there, street festivals, the possibilities are endless.
Right now it's just something I want to get across and out of again as fast as possible.
Ennis is not a town that invites you to stroll around and enjoy it.

Balagan

Dr Fuzzenstein, I think you're homesick!

What would we do when it rains? I trudged around in the rain in Ennis yesterday evening. In many places there were pools of water deep enough to bathe a big child. But the worst thing was a man shouting and loud music which turned out to be emanating from a public address system which was part of something called Ennis Street Radio. What the hell is it? Many of us haven't two red cents to spare and are in dread of the budget and this guy is doing this fake cheer-up carry-on which is obviously supposed to get us all feeling so good we will throw caution and savings to the wind? Is this another idea of the Ennis Chamber or that Forum of local businesses (the ones that stopped us getting a nice, big, dry, warm, free-parking Tesco). It was so loud I couldn't even have a comfortable conversation when I met anyone I knew. It wasn't on this morning. Hopefully it's over. Sigh!

dr.fuzzenstein

Didn't hear anything like that today.
Parked at the Temple Gate car park and skipped into town via the square.
So, arrive at the square, get ready to dodge the cars, sprint across the street whilst Mad Maries are trying to run me down, down towards Parnel Street past Photoworld and that sandwich place, you know where the footpath is just stupidly small, like two foot at the most and just thought "Why, oh why does it have to be like this?"
Wasn't raining today.
And you know what?
I NEVER find myself walking down O'Connel Street or Abbey Street, it's just stupid how little room there is.
There is no argument for having cars in those streets, only meth drinkers and the flat earth society might have members daft enough to subscribe to that idea.

johnam

has anyone seen the Ennis Christmas video, not a car in sight....just the way it is meant to be....http://vimeo.com/33035402

Balagan

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

Didn't hear anything like that today.
Parked at the Temple Gate car park and skipped into town via the square.
So, arrive at the square, get ready to dodge the cars, sprint across the street whilst Mad Maries are trying to run me down, down towards Parnel Street past Photoworld and that sandwich place, you know where the footpath is just stupidly small, like two foot at the most and just thought "Why, oh why does it have to be like this?"
Wasn't raining today.
And you know what?
I NEVER find myself walking down O'Connel Street or Abbey Street, it's just stupid how little room there is.
There is no argument for having cars in those streets, only meth drinkers and the flat earth society might have members daft enough to subscribe to that idea.

Mad Maries? I sincerely hope that you're not being misogynistic.
The thing you should know is that no Ennis person actually walks on the pavements. When we're very small our mothers took us into town and showed us how to walk in the street, ignoring the cars, and if they beep at us, to turn around with a delighted look on our faces to see who is trying to say hello to us.

CptSternn

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

That is not the only consideration ..... there is the question of distance to be travelled.
There are a large number of people who cannot walk very far, due to age, disability, medical or other reasons ...... how would they be catered for?
Presently they can be dropped at their destination/shop, and picked up again ..... what happens if there is no traffic allowed? ...... IMO, they go elsewhere ......

Abbey Street has a carpark that has entrances to pretty much every business that has an entrance on the main road. They can be dropped at the door from the carpark. The same goes for businesses on O'Connell if you look at the Moran's carpark and Dunnes carpark.

If anyone wants to make the argument it effects the less mobile, please provide a specific example, as I can think of no business in which this really is an issue.

Dunnes? They can be dropped off at the front door in the Dunnes carpark and can do so in a much more secure environment rather than thrown out in the middle of the chaos on O'Connell.

The only few places I can think of that might be able to use this as an issue is like Abrakebabra, the printer ink refill place, and the sports shops, but sure, does anyone really think those businesses would go under if the elderly and people in wheelchairs couldn't be dropped off directly out front? I don't think I have ever seen any of the less mobile in any of those businesses.

CptSternn

User Friendly wrote: »

So you didnt shop in Ennis last Xmas eve then,if you had shopped in ennis you would have seen how few people were walking the streets, The local retailers dont want the streets pedestrianised and they should be listened to.

Apples and oranges. Are you really suggesting that the pedestrianisation of the streets was the root cause of the lack of shoppers in Ennis?

If you believe that I have a magic rock that keeps away tigers you might be interested in.

The reason the businesses were empty was more because of their attitude, the attitude that they are always right and we the customers are wrong and should be treated with contempt.

Customers want pedestrianisation, businesses for some ignorant reason do not.

The reality is people are already voting, with their feet. The question as many of us have said before is how long will the businesses 'stay the course' until they finally cop on and listen to the public. In the meantime, how many more shops will close up because they bet against their customers?