Dublin city centre businesses have called for an urgent review of the bus gate at College Green, claiming it has caused a serious decline in trade. One car park owner says that the number of customers has gone down by 75% in the evenings.
A hastily arranged meeting of 12 business people in the city heard yesterday that Thursday night trade in particular had been badly affected by the bus gate. They were told that shopping in the city generally is falling off sharply after 4pm.
The traffic restriction was introduced at the end of July, banning private cars from passing in front of Trinity College during the morning and evening rush hours.
The operator of Brown Thomas car park Tony Keoghan said trade was down 75% on Thursdays between 4pm and 1am.
Chairman of the Dublin City Centre Business Association Dave McCormick said retailers' worst fears were being realised, and that the council had failed in its duty to inform people that the city was still open for cars. The city council has promised a review of the bus gate next January.
But Councillor Gerry Breen of Fine Gael, who organised the meeting of business people, said there may be large numbers of city retail workers on the dole by then.
He said trade was being pushed out to shopping centres like the Pavilion in Swords and Dundrum centre.
A spokesman for Dublin City Council said it was monitoring the bus gate and was willing to consider measures to encourage shoppers into the city. But he said that initial indications were that it had been a success for bus passengers and pedestrians.
