Appeal for a ‘town centre first’ approach to retail in Castlebar

A former local elected representative has called for the new Castlebar town plan to incorporate a 'town centre first' retail policy.

In a submission, Harry Barrett outlined: “This is particularly relevant with the new N5 ring road to Westport nearing completion.

“The major issue of concern to me is that new retail development will move to this new ring road and will strip retail space from the town centre.

“To counteract that, the new Castlebar and environs plan must map out the development of existing retail space in the centre of the town and to insist that new business is conducted in this town centre space over the period of the plan.

“This new plan must have a town centre first approach to support retail operations in the town while disencouraging new retail development on the ring road.

“I ask planners to look at the condition of the business park in Naas at the moment as a consequence of the bypass of the town. Castlebar will end up in this predicament if proper planning fails to react.

“To do this, the Castlebar and environs plan must encourage commercially viable redevelopment of existing retail space within the areas of the town centre allocated as main (primary) shopping and mixed use, with active ground floor frontages, in order to provide more modern space on those existing sites, which should be encouraged, and which may result in a nett increase in retail space on those sites.

The provision for additional retail space in the plan should be considered to be adequate to deal with demand at this time.

“The effects of online shopping, which is increasing, would be a major factor here. The plan therefore must support the development of any further new town centre retail space on any site in the town centre while curtailing new retail development to this location.”