Sprucing up city centre is not the answer

IN reply to your invitation to comment on the plan to rejuvenate Lisburn City centre, I would like to say that those who govern us have no comprehension of what is the cause of the decline of Lisburn’s shops. If allowed to continue in 10 or 20 years time it will result in streets of derelict boarded up shops similar to what has happened to towns in America.

The problem is people are shopping in out of town centres with easy access and free parking. Could you blame them? What can be done? Spending millions of pounds on changing the city centre layout, which has nothing wrong with it, is money wasted and money can’t be spent twice. It is empty shops which blight the city centre’s appearance and the more shops which become vacant will result in less variety for shoppers, lessening the attraction of the city and the decline will continue despite any new city centre layout.

What can arrest it? Ask any shopper what puts them off shopping in the city and the number one answer is always parking and its cost. Not the appearance of the city centre structure.

Where we need the money spent is free parking and more parking spaces. I know that planners will say we have an adequate amount of parking spaces, yes for the number visiting the city at present, but that number of spaces is not sufficient to support the number of shoppers needed for the survival and growth of the shops.

Provide more parking and make it free and people will come to town, shops will prosper and the decline can be reversed. Shop owners will be able to pay their rates without seeking help as they are being forced to at present.

Why not use those millions to build a couple of multi story car parks and make them free for the all day parkers. Make street parking free for the first two hours then ratchet it up to deter all day parkers.

Town centre traders always include a good mix of privately owned family businesses. If they prosper and make money it stays in Northern Ireland and contributes to the local economy, but our politicians prefer to encourage multinationals whose profits go back to the mainland.

It makes me sick to hear our MLAs claim a new Tesco or Asda or Next or some other multinational is opening, a new store creating hundreds of jobs. Can they not realise that they kill off an equivalent number of jobs in family run businesses in the town centre?

One of our councillors once said to me how much rates revenue John Lewis would contribute to the city. Yes, but at the resulting closure of more city centre shops and an equivalent loss of rate revenue.

Finally, I invite your readers to listen to the traffic report on the radio any morning. Sprucefield is always mentioned, it always has a tailback. Perhaps Stormont would realise that there are more cities in Northern Ireland than Belfast and Londonderry and spend some roads money here.

I will be interested to hear from any of our councillors where my argument is flawed.

Seymour Dugan