Ballincollig, where businesses go to die. Why is it so quiet?

JackieChang

is it just me or is Ballincollig a ghost town?

For the amount of people in Ballincollig I thought there'd be more activity in the shops. But they're empty. There's a huge area one row behind the main street that is literally an abandoned town. I'm talking about those hollow shop fronts around the main shopping centre if you go up past starbucks and ramen etc. On every empty shop front there's an advertisement - "prime retail area!" and those ads have been there for years and are getting mouldy.

Do we need an "anchor tenant" ? Like Ikea or something? The same way shopping centres have anchor tenants, but for the whole village.

I feel sorry for some of the independent shops, and actually it's one of the reasons I don't often go into them. I look in the window and it's just one person standing at the counter looking out at me hoping I'll come in and buy something. Way too awkward to go and browse in there. How do they even make money?

thejuggler

I’m saying the same for years. Having said that Ballincollig has around 7 supermarkets yet I go to Bandon road for my weekly shop. The shopping centre always feels like a ghost town too

Fred Astaire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058258450/ballincollig-where-businesses-go-to-die-why-is-it-so-quiet

You'd be better off going to Mahon Point for virtually anything that Ballincollig Shopping Centre has to offer. That's it's biggest problem.

Dunnes Stores isn't much of a draw either to get the footfall into the Shopping Centre because there are 7 other supermarkets in Ballincollig. If there were only 2 or 3 alternatives Dunnes would draw far more people.

notAMember

I rented in ballincollig for a while and wasn't mad about it. I think it's the town layout. Massive road splitting the place in two, and the regional park, while probably my favourite part of the town, is very separate from the town and housing. Those gunpowder mills were a wasted opportunity in my opinion. They could recreate some authenticity , age and character to the place by developing into retail or homes. I know it's cheaper to slap up yellow pack retail centers, but they are souless places

Mav11

They used to say that about Barrack St., that it was where businesses went to die!

danoriordan1402

VMware being the largest Employer in the town has pretty much 99% of its staff working from home. No doubt that has a major impact on footfall around the place.

thomil

As someone who lives in the Quadrants, I can't help to chuckle a little at this. True, it's not a hub of activity, but it's hardly tumbleweeds all day either. There's a surprising number of VMware staff working on-site, at least judging from the employee badges I see at lunchtime when I work from home. The shopping center is nearly fully let, with only 2-3 indoor units empty. Outdoors, the "plaza" in front of the shopping center is now fully let, with the latest tenant in the final stages of fitting out and a café only opened recently in the "central square" in the Quadrants residential area.

One of the big issues that Ballincollig has is that it is extremely spread out. With the exception of the area around Barrack Square and the Quadrants, it's just acres and acres of poorly planned and connected estates. There's no real way for people to "flow" into the central area, and that of course keeps people away.

The other big issue is the design of the Quadrants development itself, as well as the timing of course. It seems to me like the original developers there were overly reliant on retail, judging from the endless amounts of ground-floor retail units. There was a plan to rebuild these as apartments, which would certainly have helped, but that seems to have fallen through, which certainly helps create that ghost town image.

Blitzkrieger

It's a bit confusing - I'd love to see data from the businesses on Main Street.

I was there for the first time in years a few months ago, and balked at the long line for a coffee shop, having got lucky finding a parking space nearby in a very crowded car park. That said, I then went down Main Street, which when I used to visit the town frequently would be jammers, but was nearly empty. They've widened the footpaths and taken away a lot of the parking. The place used to be bustling, and it'd take ages to drive down it. It still took fooking ages with all the traffic lights, but even if I did spot somewhere else to get coffee, I wouldn't have been able to park nearby. Money spent in Ballincollig = €0.00.

snotboogie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119463770#Comment_119463770

Dell had/have a big office in Ballincollig too but are also now essentially 100% wfh

namloc1980

There's acres of parking in Ballincollig. That's one thing it's not lacking in anyway.

ofcork

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119491166#Comment_119491166

True brothers wife was supposed to go back there from citygate mahon before pandemic but wfh since.

Ballincollig Blow In

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119464686#Comment_119464686

Even though we’re in the midst of a housing crisis, I’m glad that the empty ground floor units didn’t get turned into apartments, purely because of the awful abuse and anti-social behaviour unsuspecting new renters/owners would have to put up with.

Id walk through that pedestrian area a bit at various times during the day and evening/night and without fail, nearly every single time, there’s some kind of antisocial behaviour going on by little teenage bastards.

if it isn’t verbally harassing and abusing random passing people, it is actively targeting the ground floor properties windows and doors and residents themselves. (I’m talking about the occupied apartments on the ground floor of the 2 quadrants facing Barack Square and VM Ware). The antagonists don’t seem to discriminate between either building.

The worse I personally witnessed was a gang of little shitbags around 13 or 14 (including girls) run up to an apartment door with a heavy duty fencing post they had obviously nicked from somewhere, and basically smashed it against some random womans front door with such force, the fencing post split in two and permanently damaged it.

i also know of an incident where the same aged **** stains started kicking in the ground floor door of an Asian Family, and when the man came out to confront them, he was subjected to vile racist abuse.

I also know from someone actually living in one of those mentioned blocks that that same overall gang of tween scumbags are actually going into the apartment blocks, and into the stairwells causing havoc. Fires have been deliberately set in both blocks and residents lives are made a nightmare. 3 apartments came up for rent in that same block and they were lying empty for months. Id say their reputation as a hangout for little cnuts is getting more well known amd it’s not worth the hassle for the price.

So I can totally understand why there is no desire or appetite to convert any of those empty ground floor units into apartments.

obviously not gonna ask which quadrant you live in, so your experience might be different if you are in one of the others. But if the ones I reference are anything to go by, id say any ground floor unit would be a hard sell when you have that bullshit going on outside your door every day.

just for context: when you try to report any of these incidents to possibly the only Garda who actually works in the Massive Ballincollig Garda station, unless you do so between the hours of 10am - 1pm and never on a Tuesday when it’s actually fully closed, then good luck.

😁 that actually turned into a bit of a cathartic rant.

Ballincollig Blow In

Ballincollig is weird. Seems busy enough during the day, but after 6pm it turns into a bit of a ghost town. The only activity up Main Street is teenage scumbags, or those that go for takeaway.

Theres surprisingly few pubs or proper restaurants/eateries in Ballincollig for a place of its size and population. Treacys, Coriander, Kanok Thai and Tung Sing restaurant wise, I guess Sliced too 🤔 and pubs you have Artys, Hitlers, Mary O’s (bit of a dive), I guess Treacys as just a pub as well, and The Derby which is the biggest dive and scumhole magnet going.

All Cafes seem to be all shut up by 5-6pm bar Starbucks. There’s no real “night economy” there to keep the place busy after peak hours.

Likewise with a lot of the other “regular” shops, which all seem to be variations of “Johnny’s Mens Clothes Shop for Men” or “Mary’s Womens Shoes Shop for Women”. They all shut early too.

The plaza at the front of the shopping centre is so dreary and depressing and grey. If there was a bit less paving slab and concrete and a bit more greenery and trees, that would be a far nicer spot to hang out in or even attract people in the first place and it’s not as it the space isn’t there.

While a big town/suburb, does it really need 2 x Aldi, 2 x Supervalu, 1 x Tesco, 1 x Dunnes and 1 x Lidl?

A Penneys would be great for somewhere like The ‘Collig and they stay open late-ish too.

Anything basically which isn’t a Supermarket or Takeaway :/

JackieChang

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119518419#Comment_119518419

You forgot Bacco Italian restaurant hidden out the back of the Darby. I feel sorry for those fellas, such a terrible location. Don't know how they're still going.

kuro2k

The problem with Ballincollig is that there are cars everywhere.

IMO it simply not a nice place to be. Huge potential but it will never happen. I believe continued long-term decline in its future.

I live approx 6km away but avoid the place at all costs due to the car is king attitude.

whisky_galore

I wouldn't worry too much about the cars, the area seems to be making quite the name for itself with its population of sh1tbag teens who will no doubt mature into fully grown adult sh1tbags.

JackieChang

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119525169#Comment_119525169

I've been living in Ballincollig town for two years now and haven't come across any shitebaggery. Is this in a specific area?

namloc1980

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119524400#Comment_119524400

Case in point. Residents want it to remain a car dominated hole.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40947779.html

To be honest they should be left to it. Any future Luas should also avoid the place as the residents clearly have zero desire for anything other than car domination.

JackieChang

By the way, anybody know where to get Walkers Liquorice Toffee in ballincollig?

This stuff: Walkers-Liquorice-Toffee-100g.jpg (800×800) (allsortsofsweets.ie)

Those hard toffee bars that you have to smash off a wall to eat.

Tried Supervalu and the post office on the main street.

namloc1980

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119526057#Comment_119526057

Lots of it in Ballincollig unfortunately

https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/crime/ballincollig-cork-fight-video-oldfort-22029654

https://www.corkbeo.ie/news/local-news/youths-arrested-after-man-50s-18293624

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/munster/arid-40246970.html

And this is just a sample of many reported incidents there.

whisky_galore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119526057#Comment_119526057

Oh so the mill and that playground just spontaneously combusted? Two incidents of mysterious combustion in the case of the playground. Are you living in a cave?

https://www.newstalk.com/news/mayor-is-sick-to-death-of-arson-attacks-on-cork-buildings-1355731

-Toppy-

Yeah there is definitely a few firebugs in Ballincollig (15 year resident of Ballincollig)

I know for a fact a 13 year old was caught lighting the playground beside LIDL a week or so ago, and I have personally witnessed teenagers coming out of the old Gaelscoil before it was set alight early this summer (around 7pm in the evening) (spoke to cops and rang fire brigade so thankfully no major damage)

Not sure what can be done apart from better patrols from the cops but yeah lets not go down that road about how poorly the garda station in the village is manned

Regarding the roundabout - I think part of the problem was that there was zero consultation done about it beforehand and Coolroe Meadows really does take care of the estate (has won several awards for being well kept and green aware)

The pavements there are reasonably large already as are the verges, for me I'm all for proper bike lanes but getting rid of the roundabout seems counterproductive. Plus as well the roundabout is well maintained and well regarded by the residents.

A big problem to be honest is that the road is used by larger goods vehicles as an access route to Ballincollig to head to Blarney etc, whereas there is a greater reluctance for these style of vehicles to go out as far as the final exit by Dell and to use that as an exit instead.

For me I can see the removal of the roundabout causing as much disruption which I guarantee the city council will do during a busy point of the year

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119522961#Comment_119522961

The worst meal I ever ate was from that place. Comically awful.

EnzoScifo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119547050#Comment_119547050

There are a few reasons why that the roundabout in Coolroe Meadows is unsuitable for different travel modes, including drivers.

1. about 90% of the traffic using the roundabout uses the second exit to go straight through. As there are so few using the Close to enter/exit the junction, drivers become accustomed to not preparing to yield and slowing down when approaching the roundabout making right turns dangerous and there have been incidents because of this (even a few months ago there was a crash due to this). Making the junction a straight intersection will be safer for cars entering from the Close.

2. The approaches to the roundabout on the main road are downhill. This does not encourage motorists to slow down enough when preparing to enter the roundabout, even if you freewheel to the give way line, your car will not be slowing down.

3. The roundabout is hostile to pedestrians and cyclists. At moment if a pedestrian wishes to cross to the opposite corner of the roundabout they will have to cross 4 separate lanes of traffic with no priority whatsoever. Someone in a wheelchair will struggle to cross. Cyclists also will have negotiate the roundabout while cars and trucks go through at speed. If they have to turn right then they have to move over to the right hand lane and hope for the best.

4. The replacement intersection will have tabletop entrances to the Close which slows cars entering and exiting while also giving priority to pedestrians with step free access to cross the road for disabled people.

5. The signalised crossing will enable one single movement for pedestrians to cross to the other side of the road instead of negotiating 4 lanes of traffic without priority. The traffic lights will also slow motorised traffic before the intersection with the Close.

6 Narrowing the road with cycle lanes and putting in some table top crossings will deter HGVs

Traffic safety shouldn't be compromised in order to keep a floral arrangement imo.

the beer revolu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119587859#Comment_119587859

Read a great tweet regarding that roundabout and the people objecting to its removal. It went along the lines of : "again people confusing a safe road with one, "I can comfortably drive at speed on".

CR 7

I regularly travel through here on foot or driving and occasionally by bike. It's a road layout designed for the convenience of drivers at the cost of all other road users. I can see why you'd have protests by those who have never tried to walk from one end of the road to the other. One of the arguments seems to be that there's already grand wide footpaths in place for cyclists to use...

-Toppy-

I think a simple solution to all of this here is to ban HGV traffic through this area. Reduce the traffic going through it.

I have no objection to the odd ramp/tabletop going in, putting lights in is not going to stop people driving too fast up and down. Ramps on the other hand.

I just think its an overkill solution when the money could be much better spent elsewhere

EnzoScifo

someone was knocked down by that roundabout today.

namloc1980

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119614758#Comment_119614758

And you just know it'll make absolutely no difference to the #SaveOurRoundabout brigade.

EnzoScifo

Big signs up (illegally) by Westcliffe (home of a city councillor) saying "SAVE OUR RIGHT HAND TURN LANES"

you couldn't make it up

high horse

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119657734#Comment_119657734

What right hand turn lanes are the signs referring to? What is the problem with them?