This article is from page 30 of the 2009-07-21 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 30 JPG
A NEW strategy has been unveiled to promote commercial activity in the Ennis area. The document, released by the Ennis Development Forum, targets five sectors of the local econo- my. They are: retail; tourism and hos- pitality; industry, manufacturing and infrastructure; professional services and education.
Five separate groups were estab- lished following the Bright Ideas workshop help in Ennis in April.
The aims include promoting Ennis as an attractive destination for shop- pers, exploiting the full tourism po- tential of the town and dealing with issues such as anti-social behaviour.
Various initiatives, including adver- tising campaigns, the establishment of a Twitter page, “Shopping in En-
nis, schools art competition and a free parking initiative, have already been advanced by forum members.
Details are contained in the latest re- port from the Ennis Development Fo- rum. In it, forum co-ordinator Teresa Dalton states that the group remains disappointed with the response of En- nis Town Council to suggestions it put forward.
“Regardless of the disruption of the recent local elections, the response from ETC on the key Ennis Forum is- sues of rates, water charges, parking, taxis, casual trading and infrastruc- ture continues to be extremely disap- pointing,” she states.
The report continues, “After final- ly securing a meeting with the town councillors on May 12 we made the following points; we asked the coun- cillors to give a five per cent reduc-
tion in rates for prompt payment. The dates for prompt payment have now passed and we have not as yet heard back from the council though, at the time the councillors seemed keen to progress this idea.”
The report continues, “We asked the council to urgently address the infrastructural deficit in Ennis, which is preventing future development of both housing and commercial activ- ity. The council explained that this was a joint matter with Clare County Council but councillors undertook to address this issue.”
Ms Dalton also states that many lo- cal businesses were not in a position to pay “recent massive increases in water rates and we sought a signifi- cant reduction in these water rates”. She adds, “We have not had any re- sponse to this proposal.”
The forum 1s also looking for the 1s- sue of taxi services at Parnell Street car park to be re-examined while the report also states that casual trading byelaws have been “poorly imple- mented”.
The forum is also requesting that the council appoint a small group of coun- cillors to liaise with them as “meet- ings at which there were a very large number of councillors did not tend to get a great deal of business done”’.
A reduction in commercial rates ap- pears unlikely following recent com- ments by town clerk Eddie Power. Mr Power told last week’s monthly meeting of Ennis Town Council that has rates had already been adopted, there was no “legal scope” to reduce them. However Mr Power added that it could be possible for businesses to pay rates on a phased basis.