Tralee gets a makeover but not everyone happy

THE last year saw some major changes in Tralee with much of the town centre undergoing a €1.7 million makeover.

Work on the project – which saw The Mall torn up and pedestrianised and two way traffic restored on Denny Street – began in May and only concluded in recent weeks.

While most have welcomed the works – which have transformed the appearance of the town centre – it wasn’t all plain sailing for Kerry County Council who faced severe opposition from many quarters.

Though the plan to redevelop the town centre had been in place for some time – and several public consultation periods had taken place – many of the town’s business owners were unaware of the plans finer details.

So it was, when the council announced that work was due to get underway shortly – there was an enormous public row over the plans to remove many parking spaces from Denny Street and to install a taxi rank on the historic street.

The council eventually got its way on the parking spaces but the authority had to cave to pressure and abandon the plan to accommodate taxi’s on the street.

This was a decision that would come back to haunt the council and lead to one of the biggest public disputes in Tralee for many years.

Tralee’s Taxi drivers and many members of the public were – an remain – deeply unhappy with the new taxi rank arrangement with a new rank near Boots proving particularly unpopular.

A huge number of people refused to use the rank as they felt it was in a dangerous location – from a personal safety point of view – and the vast majority of Taxi drivers boycotted it entirely after dark.

The dispute between the council – who adopted an extremely intransigent attitude to the drivers’ concerns – and the taxi drivers continued to escalate with the row becoming increasing bitter as time wore on.

Initially the taxi drivers had widespread backing and a series of protest convoys around the town and a ‘sit in’ protest on Bridge Street attracted a lot of public support.

Unfortunately for the taxi drivers however a decision to withdraw their services and mount a Saturday night strike in July backfired badly.

The strike hit town centre businesses badly and while the protest served its ultimate purpose – to highlight just how much Tralee relies on its 104 taxis –it cost the drivers significant support among the influential business owners whose backing would have significantly strengthened the Taxi Association’s hand in their negotiations with the council.

In the end the council pushed through its plans for the ranks with only a few minor concessions made to the taxi drivers.

Though the row has ended the bitterness lingers and many taxi drivers in the town say they fear for their future and a very concerned about the year ahead.