Newbridge shopping centre attracts thousands

Whitewater Shopping Centre, the Republic's largest shopping centre outside Dublin, drew more than 10,000 customers in the first two hours of trading when it opened in Newbridge, Co Kildare, yesterday morning.

The centre has 60 stores, with Debenhams, Marks & Spencer and H&M as anchor tenants.

Other high street brands include Karen Millen, Zara, Coast, Oasis, A-Wear, River Island and Sasha.

The sole supermarket is being provided by Marks & Spencer, while non-fashion stores include Eason, Peats electronics, Virgin and a Peter Mark hair salon.

The complex will employ 1,750 full-time and part-time staff.

A joint venture between Ballymore Properties and Mountbrook Homes, the centre had originally promised a six-screen cinema complex but that has failed to materialise.

The developers have now lodged an application to replace that cinema space with shops and a creche.

They have also applied for permission for a cinema on a different site in the town.

The Newbridge Concerned Residents Group wore T-shirts yesterday with the logo "Where's our cinema?" as they protested at the centre's opening.

A spokeswoman for the group said that they were selling the T-shirts throughout Newbridge "as a polite reminder to Whitewater Shopping Centre bosses that people expect early delivery of the leisure aspect of the development".

Group member Fiona Browne said the cinema was a major factor in the granting of planning permission for the centre.

"There's very little for teenagers here in Newbridge, so the cinema was one thing we were looking forward to," she said.

Centre manager Steven Cleaver said he hoped for a "win-win situation" with the cinema.

"I'm just keen to get the issue resolved to everyone's satisfaction," Mr Cleaver said. "There's an application for a cinema on an alternative site. It's actually bigger and better than what was planned."

He said he was "absolutely over the moon" with the crowds at the centre yesterday.

"You can see yourself. The place is absolutely buzzing."

Mr Cleaver said he was initially hoping for up to 40,000 visitors yesterday but he believed it looked like that number had been exceeded.

"I think we'd be hoping for initially something between 100,000 and 120,000 people a week."

Brenda Burke from Newbridge was one of the first shoppers through the doors yesterday.

"I haven't bought anything because I don't know what to pick," Ms Burke said.

"I'm getting lost, there's so much to see. I want to buy everything."

She said she regularly went to Dublin but she would shop locally from now on.

"Sure she nearly lives in Dublin," she said, pointing to her friend Audrey Smyth.

"I go twice a week to Dublin," explained Ms Smyth. "Now you can keep me in Newbridge."

Margaret Wynne from Kildare town was shopping with her daughter Anne. They said they were relieved that they would no longer have to sit in traffic for an hour to get to a major shopping centre.

"It's fantastic. We won't have to travel on the motorway now for Tallaght or Liffey Valley," said Ms Wynne.

"There'll be no need for going to Dublin any more."