Dublin centre traffic ban could aid retailers

Traffic should be banned from Westmoreland Street, one of Dublin's main thoroughfares, in order to boost the city's retail business in the face of growing competition from out-of-town centres, according to a report commissioned by Dublin City Council.

The report by property consultants Bannon Commercial said that the creation of pedestrian-only zone on the street would make it easier for shoppers to move between the main retail centres on Grafton Street and Henry Street.

Bannon listed the recommendation among a second strand of measures which should follow an initial series of efforts to stimulate the retail trade in the city centre.

Dublin City Council has already adopted some of the first phase measures, including efforts to encourage developers to make "larger floorplate" units available on Grafton Street and surrounding streets. The council also wants to see more leisure and night-time activities available in the Henry Street.

The report was commissioned last year, amid increasing concern about the quality of retailers now on Grafton Street and concern that a major portion of the money spent by city centre shoppers was "leaking" to other retail locations.

It said recent changes in Dublin's traffic management had substantially reduced the traffic on Westmoreland Street, noting that its dimensions create the opportunity for a large scale public space between the two retail main retail zones.

"Removing all the traffic from Westmoreland Street will open up substantial redevelopment opportunities on the eastern side of the street where a number of large scale potential development plots are currently in office use."

Dublin city manager John Fitzgerald said this recommendation was "aspirational", but added that the council would be considering the future use of Westmoreland Street once its efforts to boost Grafton Street and Henry Street were further advanced. "It would be much too early to suggest that that's going to be the logical outcome of it," he said.

The discussion would depend on traffic issues, the likely footfall on the street and the location of the linkage between the two Luas lines. A Government decision on this point is likely in the autumn.

One possibility under consideration is that the Sandyford Luas line would join O'Connell Street from St Stephen's Green, via Westmoreland Street. If adopted, this proposal would have a major impact on traffic levels on the street and the scope to increase pedestrian access.

The report does not mention the Luas, but makes clear the challenge facing retailers in the city and the "opportunity" to redress the balance.

"From a position of limited competition before the development of the the Square in Tallaght in 1990, Dublin city centre now represents less than half of the significant retail offer in the Dublin area," it said.

"A key goal of the growth of the city in the longer term must be to reinforce the linkage across the city. Re-invigorated shopping zones north and south of the city, if combined to a single shopping trip, will prove very difficult for any other shopping proposal to match." Bannon said the council should remove retail services from the list of normally permitted uses on the two main shopping streets.

Mr Fitzgerald said the council was reluctant to intervene in the market but said such action may be justified. "If there's a demonstrative requirement to intervene in the market through the planning process, then I think it's the job of local government to do that to whatever extent we can."