Capel Street businesses come out against…

Capel Street businesses come out against pedestrianisation

Businesses on Capel Street and the surrounding area have hit out at the 24/7 traffic ban.

Since May, all traffic apart from deliveries between 6am and 11am have been banned from the street. Temporary bollards were placed at the top of Capel Street to block all traffic coming from Parnell Street.

In a new survey conducted by a number of business people on the street, over 70% of businesses said they were "unsatisfied" with the current traffic plans. Just over half, 52%, said the traffic ban had a "negative effect" on their business, 19% said they had a positive impact while 29% said they had no real impact or did not answer the question.

Despite the street being named one of the coolest streets in the world recently, just under 30% of participants wanted the street to remain as it is. The results are in sharp contrast to a Dublin City Council survey which found more than 80% of businesses were in favour of pedestrianisation.

DCC will continue to engage with residents, businesses and the public on the issue. In a statement, the business owners who conducted the survey said the measures work for restaurants and bars on the street but not for others.

Clare O’Rourke of Evans Art Supplies said: "While we aren’t necessarily opposed to the pedestrianisation of Capel Street, we do feel that the whole thing was rushed and that there was not a sufficient consultation by DCC with the local businesses. The changes seem to strongly favour certain types of businesses, mainly hospitality and food premises, and while it’s great to see some doing well, it is confusing as to why other types of businesses seem to have been completely ignored, as if they don’t matter.

"A lot of these neglected businesses have been long term members of the Capel Street area and are part of the streets DNA, all adding to what makes it so uniquely what it is. Surely it’s not right that their business needs can just be brushed aside like this.”

Doc Huysmans of Dublin City Comics believes the measures introduced by DCC are "heavy handed" and done without proper consultation. He said: “Its clear from the results of our impartial survey of the local businesses in the immediate Capel Street area that they were not consulted properly by DCC regarding the almost total road closure of Capel Street.

"The majority of businesses were very happy with the initial trial of closure for Friday evening and all weekend. The decision of local government to close the street for the whole week was heavy handed and done with little consideration to the logistics of local businesses and their day-to-day operations.

He added: "The departments responsible for the closure of Capel Street to traffic and the fallout of it are having to approach the situation from a triage perspective, as opposed to a clear and measured plan”.

The business owners say shops on the side streets have been negatively impacted by the changes. Christian Prosser of ABC Fishing Tackle, which is one such shop, said: “The changes implemented to the area by DCC has affected our business drastically.

"The change wasn’t necessary to the area and many other businesses would agree with me on this. Our figures for the summer have dropped significantly in comparison to the last 10 years before the changes made by DCC”.

The survey was carried out in August. Out of the 187 businesses that were surveyed, 140 took part.

The survey was carried out by the owners of Dublin City Comics, John Brereton Jewellers, Louis Copeland and Evans Art Supplies.

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