This article is from page 16 of the 2009-03-24 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 16 JPG
TRADING stalls at the Matchmak- ing Festival in Lisdoonvarna could be a thing of the past as Clare Coun- ty Council is preparing to severely curtail casual trading licences issued in the area this year and are to ex- amine a complete ban on traders in the square.
Following a proposal put forward at yesterday’s north Clare area meet- ing of Clare County Council, the lo-
cal authority is to arrange a meeting with local business people and the Gardai to discuss how to limit li- oiler
Speaking on the proposal, Cllr Ri- chard Nagle (FF), said that a number of tourists visiting Lisdoonvarna have had to leave their hotels in the middle of the night because of noise and disruption coming from the trad- ase
“The business community of the town need to be consulted on this.
There is a lot of noise and distur- bances from the traders and this is giving a very bad impression of Lis- doonvarna,” he said.
“T would propose that only a few licences should be given out and no licences be given in the area of the square. I know that visitors were so disturbed by the noise that they said that they would not come back to the town and demanded their money back for their accommodation.
“A meeting must take place with
the business people in Lisdoonvarna but it is important that the Gardai are at that meeting. In the past the Gardai have said that they are not in a position to move the people who are causing a nuisance on but under the new by-laws that does not seem to be the case.
“It seems that everyone who wants to come and park up in the middle of Lisdoonvarna has the right to do it. When there is an idea out there that there is no laws then people will treat
it as such.”
According to James Barry, Senior Staff Officer of the Ennistymon Area Office, new by-laws introduced last year mean that the council and the Gardai now have the power to drasti- cally reduce the number of licences and add a number of conditions to each license.
Despite this however, fortune tell- ers will be allowed to continue in Lisdoonvarna as they do not fall un- der the remit of the new by-laws.