‘Garish’ shopfronts raise the hackles of environmentalists

Date Published: 16-Jun-2011

BY FRANK FARRAGHER

AN TAISCE have called on the City Council to strictly enforce planning laws as regards ‘garish shopfronts’ located right in the heart of the city’s main shopping area.

Derrick Hambleton, Chairman of An Taisce, Galway, said this week that it appeared the City Council had ‘no standards’ as regards the painting of shop facades.

There was controversy earlier this month over what was described as a ‘shocking pink’ painted on an adult shop frontage on William Street called the Pink Feather.

The shop located on the first floor of the old Carpenter’s Menswear Shop is on top of another shop painted in canary yellow.

“This amounts to reckless neglect of our city streetscape with garish signage and lower order shops allowed to proliferate.

“The failure of the City Council to enforce the existing planning laws has dragged the city down. Poor quality shopfronts are becoming an increasing problem city wide but are most pronounced in the historic core of Galway,” said Mr. Hambleton.

A spokesman for Galway City Council said: “Our planners and inspectors will be looking at any shopfronts or buildings that do not meet with the standards laid down.”

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.