NEW ROSS ON CUSP OF GREATNESS
FRESH, INNOVATIVE THINKING NEEDED ALONG WITH RESEARCH INTO OTHER SUCCESSFUL SMALL TOWNS FOR NEW ROSS TO THRIVE.
NEW ROSS businesspeople have been told to get creative and work together to make New Ross a unique shopping and tourist destination, unlike anywhere else in Ireland.
An 80 strong crowd of local retailers and company owners were told at the meeting in the Brandon House Hotel they have a golden opportunity to make the town of New Ross great again if they work together in promoting it and making it a centre of excellence.
MC Tony Ennis said people across Ireland who watched Nationwide saw how beautiful New Ross town and quay-front is. County Wexford Chamber President Sean Reidy said the opening of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Bridge has marked a pivotal moment for the town. ‘When you looked at Nationwide last night it described a town on the cusp possibly of great things.
This meeting is about this new future for New Ross, to start the process of developing a dynamic retail strategy to bring new life particularly for the downtown area.’
Among the chamber’s plans for the town are job creation, tourism, public realm, an ability to retain local shoppers and to become a thriving market town again, one which can compete with online shopping options, he said.
Mr Reidy said Clonakilty is an exemplar of a bypassed town, one which has a unique brand which immediately comes to mind. ‘It’s a friendly town, a green town, a smart town, a market town, a tourist town.’
Director of services Eamonn Hore outlined the €270m investment that has been secured for the town and area over recent years, listing the bypass (€230m), the Apex (€7m), the
Library Park (€500,000), St Mary’s Church (€250,000), the flood protection scheme (€4m), the Great New Ross River Walk (€400,000), improvement works on John Street (€200,000), and the marina (€500,000), the town wall, the greenway (€13.3m) and the announcement of a €9.3m investment in expanding the Dunbrody and developing a park on High Hill, along with Destination Town funding of €650,000 as key examples of work the local authority has invested in to improve the town. ‘I happen to think it’s a very exciting time for New Ross. Sometimes when I go out of New Ross people tell me how much the town has improved but sometimes when you’re inside in New Ross maybe you don’t quite see it.’
He gave a 25 minute audio-visual presentation highlighting the various projects undertaken and set to be completed next year including the New Ross to Waterford greenway, which has a December 2021 completion date. ‘The Regional Spatial Economic Strategy has been adopted which means Wexford will be doing up a new development plan and within that there will be a specific retail plan for New Ross.’
Mr Hore said a walking and cycling strategy completed in 2011 was very useful when applying for greenway funding. ‘ We are going to get no place unless we work together. We have a golden opportunity to reinvent our town as a destination in its own right. It’s a celebratory moment as the HGVs are no longer chugging through the quay side and New Ross, and the number of people who stop in New Ross will increase after the bypass,’ he said.
Mr Hore spoke of the financial benefits to the town’s businesspeople of the Kennedy connection.
‘The Kennedy connection is priceless. We had a survey carried out by the chief lecturer in tourism in Limerick University. She found that 71 per cent of people were aware of the JFK link and 31 per cent of people come to New Ross due to the Kennedy connection. 87 per cent of people say we should use it more. Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy’s children were serious people with serious Irish connections and they loved Dunganstown and New Ross.’
Mr Hore said the bridge is a tourist attraction in and of itself. He said there are over 50 signposts on the bypass for New Ross, along with great tourism signage. ‘There is a bright future for New Ross,’ he said, adding that the old oil tanks on the quay are due to be removed later this year.
Mr Hore said the High Hill will link the town centre with St Mary’s and the top of the town, adding that €9.3m will be invested in New Ross over the coming years.
‘I think the greenway will be absolutely brilliant from New Ross because the nicest part of it is the Red Bridge and the Mount Elliott tunnel.’
He said the railway line cost €400m in today’s money to build and to bring it back has only cost around €400,000.
Mick Hanly from Clonakility Chamber of Commerce also addressed the crowd.
Mr Hanly said: ‘ Everybody suffers from the same problems. There is no silver bullet. You have to keep working on it and working on it. Clonakilty punches way above our weight in relation to pr. It doesn’t happen naturally, we got to work on it. (Our focus) is to have something we can do that gives us an edge on Westport, Killarney etc. We use them as guidelines in relation to what we are trying to do. We are always trying to become the first town to do something in Ireland because once you become the first everybody else follows you. We were the first Fairtrade town in Ireland. Last year we were the first autism friendly town in Ireland.’
He urged local retailers and the chamber to piggyback on the innovative ideas of other successful towns in Ireland and abroad and for businesspeople not to distance themselves from the chamber.
‘The members are the chamber and what you put into a chamber you will get out of a chamber. Every single member is the chamber. People need to think differently about how chambers work.’
He said his adopted hometown used to be referred to as ‘Clonakilty God help us’ because there was a poor house and soup kitchen in the town, but today it is associated with black pudding.
‘We’re happy with whatever puts us in the mind. We swing off it and off of Michael Collins too.’
Another initiative saw the businesspeople of Clonakilty took it upon themselves to organise a mayoral election and the top five were named mayor for the following five years based on votes and there was a successful a ‘Cool Clon’ sustainability initiative in November also. ‘We weren’t entitled to have a mayor but we did it. We elected our own town mayor because a mayor is a big deal for people from Europe. It’s is a big deal in France, Italy etc. People from these places want to talk to one person in the town – the mayor.’
He said a digital voucher scheme, whereby town vouchers with €10, €20 and €50 denominations, is about to be trialled in the town.
‘Vouchers work. Around 20 per cent of vouchers never come back. People just use them as cash, apart from at Supervalu where they are redeemed.’
He said there is a massive multiplier effect. ‘It’s about trying to keep business and money in the town.
‘The days of selling a shoe are gone. You are trying to give them
I THINK NEW ROSS HAS A FANTASTIC FUTURE BUT ONLY TO THE EXTENT THAT YOU TAKE THE BULL BY THE HORNS AND DO IT YOURSELVES. IT WILL NOT HAPPEN UNLESS YOU STAND UP AND START THE PROCESS
an extra experience. There is an add on. Shoppers use all of their senses. You need to give them a reason why they want to go in there.’
He said premium shops and supermarkets in town centres can be destinations in themselves, giving an example of a cafe which has a record player in the corner where people can put on a record and sit down and enjoy a song they like while having their tea and cake.
‘These are all little add ons. It doesn’t happen by itself.’
He said people should come forward to the chamber only when they are genuinely interested in working on a project for the betterment of the town.
‘We need people who have ideas to put up their hand and say they are prepared to drive on the project and bring it to fruition.’
Mr Hanly said it is often the case that people from outside the town who are living there can offer the best insights into how to bring it on.
Replying to a question from Anthony Deegan about the attractive colour scheme of the houses in the south Cork town, Mr Hanly said it has been a success.
He said there is no paid parking in Clonakilty, after businesspeople fought against the town council over it.
Glana Controlled Hygiene owner John O’Shea said he was very surprised and impressed by the investment the council and state has put into New Ross and garage owner Nick Cashin praised the developments in the town.
Restaurateur Raymond Forte asked how much footfall the town will get when the bypass opens.
Mark Minihan said he didn’t realise how much was spent on all of the works. He called for a lift of some description at the hill so people wouldn’t have to climb the High Hill to got to St Mary’s.
‘A lot of the people who come to New Ross are of an advanced age and I don’t think they’ll walk up the hills. Maybe another way would be to bus them into the top of the town and let them percolate down, but I think putting a static garden there without some kind of a lift would be a mistake when the whole thing is going to cost a lot of money anyway. I think the extra (money) would be very well spent.’
Mr Hore said: ‘It’s very hard to put a figure on the footfall, but certainly all of the towns that have been bypassed like Gorey and even Enniscorthy have shown there will be an increase.’
Fáilite Ireland say it will bring an extra 30,000 in within a few years, he said, adding: ‘and with the development of the old bank and Murphy’s there will be a major visitor attraction bringing
150,0000. I still think New Ross will develop. If Waterford takes off people will choose to live in New Ross because you are talking about, 10, 15 minutes, and New Ross needs a bigger population also.’
He said the site of the Royal Hotel is too small for a lift. ‘There are seven rest areas on the hill,’ he said, adding that a bus is a possibility.
Verona Murphy TD, in her first public meeting since being elected the day before, said she will fight for a university for the south east with a campus in Wexford. ‘2,800 of our young people leave the county every year to go to university and to service any business or IDA enterprise we need to retain that work forced so we need a university in Co Wexford that has the STEM courses (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths), with an apprenticeship centre of excellence. It has to be in Wexford because we have the highest populous.’
Pete Caulfield asked for an update on natural gas coming to town.
Mr Hore said: ‘It’s a chicken and egg. The last time it was looked at Bord Gáis decided that there wasn’t enough uptake for a link from Great Island in. If we get inward investment gas will follow and then more inward investment will follow but unfortunately at the moment it’s not seen as economically viable for New Ross.’
The new CEO of County Wexford Chamber Fiona Lewis said: ‘I am flabbergasted by the positive energy here in the room. It’s a great thing to say that Co Wexford Chamber has its first meeting here tonight and it’s great credit to New Ross that the first president on the board is from the town.’
Ms Lewis said: ‘ We want to look to all the opportunities that are available to make New Ross a unique place. We want to see about the possibility of it becoming a green town. We want to look at carbon neutrality and to look at smart towns. It has been a market town. It had been a tourist town, but it doesn’t have to be one of those things, it can be a destination town.’
Ms Lewis said Skillnet courses are available regarding online selling, media branding etc.
‘We can do training needs analysis but ye are the members and the chamber and my job is to deliver on what you present to me.’
She called on people to join committees and asked members of the chamber’s former retail committee to reconvene.
‘Tourism is such a strong part of New Ross. The points about the Norman Way and JFK – it’s a phenomenal success story and credit for all that has been done so far but we need to link the two together. Let’s not just be one or the other. Let’s make sure that we’re a destination and that people who come for tourism do their shopping.’
Benchmarks are being looked at so visitors have a special sensation when they come to New Ross as they get in Clonakility.
She said ‘ideas that come from the ground’ are key.
‘There is a real desire from the board of the Co Wexford Chamber to help. There is a huge amount of expertise: experienced businesspeople who represent all of the towns involved. The bypass will result in a greater footfall, albeit it after a short hiatus.’
Hair salon owner Anna Furlong said she is delighted by all of the positivity. She praised the tremendous work Visit New Ross are doing, urging the chamber to get involved in them.
‘They are driving the town solely on their own and I think they are not getting enough recognition for the work they are doing. Other than that baby steps and we will eat the elephant somehow.’
Mr Ennis wrapped up the meeting by saying the county council and Mr Hore are a godsend for New Ross.
He urged people to work together.
‘If I had a retail business in New Ross right now I’d be looking to invest and I’d be taking myself down to Dingle and Killarney and some locations in Galway and I would walk around and I would look for what is going to happen here as everything mentioned tonight is going to bring visitors to this area. Tourists are the happiest mugging victims you will ever encounter. They want to have a nice experience in return for their spend.’