LIMERICK’s city centre has a huge amount of poor shopfront signage, which does not show Limerick off at its best, one councillor told Limerick City and County Council.
Speaking at September’s Metropolitan District meeting, Independent councillor Maria Donoghue called for an enforcement officer to be appointed to actively pursue and focus on the removal of poor shopfront signage in the city centre.
“We have a large amount of poor shopfront signage design across the city, it is poor quality design, it’s poor quality materials, it’s cheap and it’s a poor reflection of our city,” Cllr Donoghue told the Council chamber.
“We have poor management of our building stock,” she hit out.
She said that people having been “abusing” government initiatives around property and residential development with “people living 10 or 12 to a bedroom”.
“These are all coming from poor enforcement and I think we probably have an overstretched enforcement team in the Council.”
Cllr Donoghue called on the Council to resource an additional enforcement officer for the city centre to manage a better building environment.
Fine Gael councillor Olivia O’Sullivan seconded the motion, with support also shown from Cllr Peter Doyle (FG).
“I recently had an experience where I highlighted an ugly, tacky shopfront on William Street to the head of planning. Two months later and the ugly, tacky shopfront is still in existence,” Cllr Doyle hit out.
“It’s very disheartening for existing shop owners who put a lot of money in putting their shops across the road in good condition. As one shop owner said to me, we seem to operate a parallel system here in Limerick Council.”
Cllr Doyle said he was “taken aback at how slow we are to take action”.
“In my view, the shop should have been issued a letter with a 20-day warning and then there should be some action.”
In response, Limerick City and County Council said it currently employs two full-time enforcement officers who work in the Development Management Department.
“At present, there is no capacity to appoint one of the officers on a full-time basis to focus on the removal of poor shopfront signage in the city centre. However, where a complaint is received regarding a shopfront that does not benefit from planning permission, it will be investigated a per the requirements of the Planning and Development Act 2020.”
