Duleek traders feeling the impact with reduced parking spaces after street upgrade
TRADERS on the main street in Duleek have expressed their displeasure at the loss of trade due to the recent road improvement works in the village.
Construction began in May 2017 to enhance the look of the village and to deal with the traffic issues on the main street, and ended just before Christmas.
Dave Keaveney of Xtra Cleaning dry cleaners has lost a third of his customers compared with before the works started.
“There’s nowhere to park outside for customers to drop in their dry cleaning, and they don’t want to walk from halfway down the street”, he said.
“The council said there would be more parking spaces, but they’re at the other end of the village. There is a new bus bay and disabled parking spaces where there was parking before, and a yellow box outside the door here.
“The council should have come to all shops before the works started to advise about what would happen. I’ve been on to the council myself but they haven’t got back to me.”
Una McCarthy of Elegant Beauty said that potential customers are starting to avoid the village and going to Drogheda instead.
“As well as that older people have huge difficulty accessing services like hairdressers and barbers, or even just going to the shops or to Mass. There’s no parking near the church.
“When the works were going on we tried to keep ticking over, but things haven’t improved now that the work is done”, she said.
Pauline Durkin of The Village Barber is also concerned about people avoiding Duleek, and is worried that customers from outside the village won’t come back.
“I have lost clients from outside the village. The street is too narrow now. If they had put four ramps between the top of the street and the bottom it would have solved the traffic problem.
“The double yellow lines around the green mean that people can’t park when going to Mass”, she said.
Rita Murray owns A Touch Of Class hairdresser is also unhappy at the reduced number of parking spaces: “Some of the old parking spaces are blocked now, and there are finger poles on the path and it’s very difficult to park next to them.
“The street looks great and the quality of the work is great but the ramps are very high. There is a major problem with access to the village”.
Kathy Maher of Duleek Pharmacy says thay lost customers during construction and they haven’t returned.
“Staff had serious difficulties with access during the works. Customers just drove past because there was chaos on the street. Now they’ve stayed away because parking is insane.
“The big issue was notification. The workers came and started and we just weren’t ready for it”, she said.
Caroline Murray of Duleek Community Shop says they are getting less items donated for selling because people with a lot of items are not coming due to the lack of parking near the shop.
“It’s an absolute disaster. The road is too narrow and the kerbs are sticking too far out. Older people wouldn’t come in during the works because it was too difficult to get in, and the noise was terrible”.