AARON KENT
The decline in Waterford's retail offerings suggests “a race to the bottom” says Independent Councillor Joe O’Riordan, as he called on Waterford Council to co-operate with retailers so that quality offerings can survive on the high streets in Waterford’s city and towns.
Speaking at this month’s Plenary meeting Cllr. O’Riordan highlighted the increase in vape and phone repair shops as a dangerous trend that could be irreversible if retailers are not supported.
“It seems like the major area of growth and retail in our town centres are vape or mobile phone repair shops. This constitutes a race to the bottom for retail space on our highstreets,” he said.
Cllr. O’Riordan called for a forum or workshop where retailers could air their views.
“Retail can compete with online shopping given the support, encouragement and co-operation of this council. Or we can sit back, coast along and watch the general diluting of retail outlets, leading to the death of our high streets.”
Responding on behalf of Council management, Michael Quinn, Director of Services for Economic Development, said the issue is not a simple as it seems.
“Just about everybody acknowledges that retail is facing very significant challenges across the board. That’s in no way limited to Waterford,” Mr. Quinn said.
“When it comes to retail it is a much more complicated problem. We are faced with the fact that we don’t have retail property available. We don’t want to go into competition with existing landlords in the City Centre,” he pointed out.
Mr. Quinn emphasised that the lack of value retail coming into the City Centre was not for the lack of trying.
“Attracting retailers into Waterford is very challenging we had a number of initiatives over the past few years and got absolutely no response to those,” he said.
“If you look at people who do have property, City Square and George’s Court are two that come to mind – they have significant challenges in filling their property, and they are the ones in the position to offer discounts or whatever might be needed to attract in the retailer,” Mr. Quinn said.
“We will work with anybody that comes forward with a half decent idea to address the problems in the City Centre and town centres in support of retail.
“But, there is no easy fix here and we are certainly not the only ones that can enable the solution,” Mr. Quinn added.
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme
