Ideas needed to breathe new life into town centre
“WHAT was once the Golden Quarter Mile in now a pale shadow of years gone by, the town centre of Drogheda is fighting for its future”.
The words of Cllr Pio Smith, chairing a meeting in Drogheda last Thursday evening, seeking the revival of Drogheda’s town centre.
“Drogheda is a fantastic town in many ways, however the town centre is slowly dying. We as a community need to address this issue for future generations of townspeople,” said Cllr Smith. “There are a significant number of buildings in our town centre that are vacant and or underused. Also, a large portion of our town suffers from dereliction, such as in Narrow West Street and many people refuse to visit the town centre at weekends because they are afraid to do so.”
A panel of guest speakers joined an audience of 110 people, including Simon Wall the architect who transformed Westport, David Fitzsimmons from Retail Excellence Ireland and representatives of BIDS and the Drogheda City Status group, as well as local traders.
“Retailers in the town centre face stiff competition from online shopping and out of town shopping centres where there is free and easy parking. This is bad for us as a community, bad for business and ultimately bad for the council,” adds Cllr Smith. “In recent years, I have noticed that people want midweek convenience and weekend experience – a town must aim to provide both and it is essential that we create both in Drogheda, otherwise the town centre will die and with it a lot of our heritage.” There was interest from all parties to join forces and create ideas and solutions to breathe new life in the town centre.
“The next discussion will have to be why people don’t come into the town, what’s not working and what we need to do,” he adds. “In the next meeting, we will hear from Alison Harvey from the heritage department in Dublin, who carries out health checks for border counties, but sadly not Drogheda, and we hope to receive one. “A Purple Flag is our next goal – an award for excellence in night life – as in order to attract visitors after dark, something other than pubs and clubs have to be offered, and at the moment, people just don’t feel safe.”
He says locals can get involved by getting informed by attending the next meeting in June, with the date to be announced soon.