The Man's Shop Closes Down

messrs

Just after reading that the Man's Shop has shut its doors. Cant believe this shop is gone I know the town has gone really bad recently and lots of places closing but really didn't think this one would

Long Gone

End of an era....

road_high

More bad news for Longford. The Shaws and Homebase closures are really bad too as they are anchor stores in the town. The rest of the country seems to be picking up somewhat but Longford is still stuck badly in recession if these are anything to go by.
There needs to be some sort of taskforce undetaken to give a town/county like Longford special assistance as it's clearly not achieving a recovery like other areas. Special incentives and reduced rates need to be looked at to encourage business as well as vital upgrade to infrastructure.

messrs

road_high wrote: »

More bad news for Longford. The Shaws and Homebase closures are really bad too as they are anchor stores in the town. The rest of the country seems to be picking up somewhat but Longford is still stuck badly in recession if these are anything to go by.
There needs to be some sort of taskforce undetaken to give a town/county like Longford special assistance as it's clearly not achieving a recovery like other areas. Special incentives and reduced rates need to be looked at to encourage business as well as vital upgrade to infrastructure.

There needs to be free parking in the town, people don't want to go in and pay for parking - and reduced rent for tenants , I can see a few more places going to , its a pity, it just seems to be going downwhill all the time

Polo_Mint

no offence but Longford main street is starting to look line a scene for Angelas Ashes

Its not a pleasing county to the eye

Polo_Mint

no offence but Longford main street is starting to look like a scene for Angelas Ashes

Its not a pleasing county to the eye

hallo dare

messrs wrote: »

There needs to be free parking in the town, people don't want to go in and pay for parking - and reduced rent for tenants , I can see a few more places going to , its a pity, it just seems to be going downwhill all the time

You hit the nail on the head.

The Council have to stop with this pay parking lark and bring custom back into the town, it's killing off the place, espically when you can go to Roscommon and get almost all you want there with no pay parking.

The town has become extremely neglected and ran down looking.
Once you pass by the Longford arms on the way to the cinema the whole place becomes very disturbing looking, along with alot of the closed shops along the Dublin Road.

hallo dare

road_high wrote: »

More bad news for Longford. The Shaws and Homebase closures are really bad too as they are anchor stores in the town. QUOTE]

Are Homebase still going?

I though I seen it somewhere that there was a chance it might get to stay. Maybe I'm wrong.

road_high

hallo dare wrote: »

road_high wrote: »

More bad news for Longford. The Shaws and Homebase closures are really bad too as they are anchor stores in the town. QUOTE]

Are Homebase still going?

I though I seen it somewhere that there was a chance it might get to stay. Maybe I'm wrong.

Hopefully they will. As I said I really think businesses in Longford need special attention through a range of majors. I'm not one for Govt interference at all in markets or business but do I feel this is an urgent case which needs help, badly.

Polo_Mint

Dont people like the Reynolds have a monopoly on the buildings on the main street?

The Closed down Annaly Hotel looks like a horror show

road_high

Think a lot of it is lack of political clout. James Bannon is an atrocious TD. I can see that and I'm not from Longford. Longford would benefit enormously from a major infrastructural project like upgrading the N4 to M4 which was planned, as other more prosperous areas have with their motorway access. It's an essential for inward investment these days.

NSAman

Perhaps if people shopped in The Man's Shop it would not have closed down??

blinding

Why don't the give 1 or two hours free parking in these towns.

road_high

NSAman wrote: »

Perhaps if people shopped in The Man's Shop it would not have closed down??

If they had the disposable income they might...that's the whole point of what I'm saying. People clearly weren't shopping in all the other premises and businesses (some of them blue-chip ones like Homebase) that closed/are closing either.
Stuff like the army barracks closing in a town like Longford that badly needed those jobs it was a criminal decision, and moving all to Athlone which already has so much there already compared to more disadvantaged Longford.

garfieldsghost

A concerted effort from the IDA and other enterprise bodies is needed to encourage a couple of large-scale businesses to Longford, who can employ a sizeable portion of the local workforce. The level of disposable income available in the area will then increase, and with that you'll see more retailers being attracted to the town, bringing more jobs... look at how Athlone has come on since the pharma companies set up base there. Of course, the IDA haven't set foot in the county for five years now, so don't expect anything like that happening anytime soon.

With all due respect to those blaming the problem on paid parking, I'm afraid I don't agree and I find the notion that people are choosing to go to Roscommon instead quite absurd because it's a false economy... are they really going to spend €10+ on petrol for a return trip there to do the shopping instead of paying €2 for all-day parking in Longford?

hallo dare

garfieldsghost wrote: »

With all due respect to those blaming the problem on paid parking, I'm afraid I don't agree and I find the notion that people are choosing to go to Roscommon instead quite absurd because it's a false economy... are they really going to spend €10+ on petrol for a return trip there to do the shopping instead of paying €2 for all-day parking in Longford?

Depends on location between the two, plus why pay for parking on a public street that your "road tax" is supposed to have paid for already.

blinding

hallo dare wrote: »

Depends on location between the two, plus why pay for parking on a public street that your "road tax" is supposed to have paid for already.

I don't think that some people take into account the "sheer annoyance" of having to pay for parking.

For instance; One day I was in a our small provincial town and had loose change in the car but I just plain forgot to pay (genuinely). Making my way to the shop I spotted the traffic warden having a chat and the penny dropped. So I sped back to car and avoided a ticket. If I had gotten a ticket in this case it would certainly have influenced whether I went to that place again. Even the plain nuisance of having to have change, watch times, etc all has an effect.

Free parking is bound to have an effect and I would say that business's would back me up on this.

garfieldsghost

hallo dare wrote: »

Depends on location between the two, plus why pay for parking on a public street that your "road tax" is supposed to have paid for already.

If it depends on the location between the two, well then chances are they're in somewhere like Lanesborough which is right on the edge of the county, and even then Longford is closer so it still doesn't make sense. If you come across someone who actually does make an effort to go to Roscommon rather than Longford, let me know, because I still haven't come across one years after the claim was first made by some local councillors.

Re. your second point... to the best of my knowledge, the Government's income from road tax goes into the main pot and isn't reserved for anything related to road infrastructure.

blinding wrote: »

I don't think that some people take into account the "sheer annoyance" of having to pay for parking.

For instance; One day I was in a our small provincial town and had loose change in the car but I just plain forgot to pay (genuinely). Making my way to the shop I spotted the traffic warden having a chat and the penny dropped. So I sped back to car and avoided a ticket. If I had gotten a ticket in this case it would certainly have influenced whether I went to that place again. Even the plain nuisance of having to have change, watch times, etc all has an effect.

Free parking is bound to have an effect and I would say that business's would back me up on this.

Most towns, including Mullingar, Athlone, Carrick-on-Shannon, and Cavan, also have paid parking, so it's not unique to Longford.

Look, I'm not trying to start a row; drastic action is certainly needed to turn Longford around. It's just that paid parking is constantly named as the reason business is tough for the town's traders, but it's not. It's a distraction from the real factors, such as limited spending power brought about by high unemployment figures, and a lack of any cohesive plan to regenerate areas of the town centre that were dying or dead long before the recession took hold (e.g. Main Street). Address those, and no one's going to even bat an eyelid at paid parking.

Ghost Buster

hallo dare wrote: »

Depends on location between the two, plus why pay for parking on a public street that your "road tax" is supposed to have paid for already.

Theres no such thing as road tax. Its motor tax, a tax on your vehicle. That has nothing to do with the cost of road provision.



On Shaws and Homebase.
Shaws was too dam small with not enough choice in its tiny departments to attract a customer.
Homebase was easily the most expensive hardware shop in town. When independents like Bernie Fallons and Roger Wards managed to be considerably cheaper than them they were onto a loser from the start.

hallo dare

garfieldsghost wrote: »

If you come across someone who actually does make an effort to go to Roscommon rather than Longford, let me know, because I still haven't come across one years after the claim was first made by some local councillors.
.

You don't get out much. :rolleyes:

Ghost Buster wrote: »

Theres no such thing as road tax. Its motor tax, a tax on your vehicle. That has nothing to do with the cost of road ..

I don't care what they call it, i have a big shiny disc on my windscreen that cost alot to put there. The last i checked, my car uses the road, along with every other car, van, truck, etc in the County. My tax has already been paid for to use my car on the road. Why should I pay a second charge on my car to park it outside a shop?

Anyway, if you're happy to pay then work away.

Done.

garfieldsghost

hallo dare wrote: »

You don't get out much. :rolleyes:

You're only rolling out that personal insult because you can't prove the point.

adocholiday

Longford is becoming more and more depressed and nothing is being done about it. I couldn't believe how quiet it was in the town over the Christmas. Pubs weren't half busy and the shops were ticking over alright but there was no Christmas rush. It's very saddening to see how quiet its gone, and its a vicious circle too.

The vital demographic for any town is the 25-35 age group. They are the people who will start settling down, buying houses, forging their careers etc. If there are no jobs in a town, you lose that age group. Therefore you lose the spending power of that group, leading to businesses closing down, and even less jobs. I am in my late 20's now and I ran into a few of my old classmates from St. Mel's at Christmas. We were actually discussing this very issue. There were 120 lads in our year and we determined that out of those 120, somewhere between 10 and 20 have stayed in Longford. Everyone else has moved elsewhere for work. And that's just one year, what about the rest?

The focus for Longford has to be job creation and retention so that that vital demographic stays and grows in Longford. Paid parking and other such arguments aren't worth talking about at this point. We're gone far beyond that, and it's only going to get worse. If you can keep young professionals in Longford and encourage others to come, the town will be revived. That's the solution.

road_high

http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/if-the-town-goes-it-will-be-gone-for-good-34534963.html

Interesting article and more or less what everyone has been saying. Time for the Government and state agencies to step in- prioritise investment and infrastructure in Longford. I wouldn't normally advocate state intervention to help a place but I think this is exceptional now. Past decisions like closing the Military Barracks were crazy mistakes in my opinion, moving it to much stronger Athlone which already had a strong enough and diverse employment base.
The M4 corridor extension to Longford would be a huge boost for example.
I'm not even from there but have some connections in the area and would love to see it get back on it's feet.

longford101

A shame!