Survey reveals 36 shut premises in Ballinasloe town centre

The officially-designated county town of Galway has 36 prime business units vacant – indicating that any signs of an economic recovery have not filtered out to the rural parts.
Ballinasloe has been designated as the county town of Galway but a weekend survey reveals that it is certainly not reaping the benefits.
There are now 27 shop units with their shutters down while nine pubs are no longer trading. One closed as recently as last weekend.
It is a nightmare scenario for Ballinasloe which lost hundreds of jobs in recent years with the closure of some high profile manufacturing industries like AT Cross and Square D.
Recently, a senior IDA official attended a meeting of the local Municipal Council and did not offer huge hopes of any significant new jobs being created in the town.
But the revelation that there are now almost 40 business premises unoccupied in and around the town centre in Ballinasloe is sure to come as a wake-up call for local business leaders.
The survey was conducted by the Connacht Tribune along the three main streets which meet at the roundabout in the centre of the town – Dunlo Street, Main Street and Society Street.
The results do not provide confidence for the other town centre business interests – with a lot of the blame being put on the development of out-of-town retail units such as Tesco, Aldi and Lidl.
Chairman of Ballinasloe Municipal Council, Cllr. Michael Finnerty said that it was high time that the Ballinasloe Area Community Development (BACD) woke up to the crisis and tried to address it.
“We are looking at a situation that the shutters could come down on a lot more business premises unless the situation is addressed.
“As a council we are trying to relax the paid parking situation and we feel that this will go some way towards helping out existing businesses,” Cllr Finnerty added.
While the survey in Ballinasloe was conducted in and around the town centre, Cllr Finnerty said that there were several more business premises on the outskirts which were also closed down.