Drogheda Chamber Holds Local Business Meeting

Earlier in March, the Drogheda Chamber organised a public meeting and invited business owners and managers aswell as local representatives from the Drogheda & District area.

Over 240 people attended the meeting in the newly opened Barbican Centre. The meeting was chaired by Patricia Rooney, President of the Drogheda Chamber and Padraic Kierans, Finance Committee Chairperson.

The minutes of the meeting are HERE.

Prior to the meeting, the Drogheda Chamber undertook a survey and the results were announced at the meeting.

Why the Meeting was Called

Padraic Kierans informed the packed auditorium that the Drogheda Chamber had been forced to call the meeting due to the seriousness of the situation businesses in the area are currently facing. He went onto say that he noted that increasingly businesses were under severe pressure and sadly as we all knew many had disappeared in recent weeks, highlighting the difficulties for large, medium and small business have incurred since the summer of 2009 – who took on large loans to facilitate growing their businesses, or negotiated expensive leasing arrangements which are now crippling them and they are struggling to cope with these and many other cost elements weighing down their businesses but cannot escape these burdens.

Positive Suggestions

This meeting was about acknowledging the situation and seeing how, as a group, positive actions could be taken. Suggestions were encouraged from the gathered business owners, almost a rising tide raises all ships.

For my end, I was delighted to see some really positive suggestions coming from the business owners of the town. I know that the Chamber is putting together an action plan and many of the suggestions are included.

If you don’t get time to read the minutes, here are the many positive suggestions:

• Busking Licence / encourage Buskers
• Survey the shoppers to see what they really want
• Write to banks and let them know the real story
• Get a central tourist office
• Clean up Battle of the Boyne site
• Free parking at certain times/ special rate / discounted rates
• Bus Park especially for Tourists
• Booklet of offers / coupons for shops and hotels
• Erect multi story car park on unused land
• Let artists use unoccupied space/windows to bring creativity into town
• Use pavement on West Street for Saturday Market - certain stalls
• Involve West Street more with Arts Festival
• Market Drogheda more to other regions – churches, historical religious monuments – Town of spires
• Enclose Food Market ala Georges Market in Belfast (6days)
• Walking tours / audio enhancements at hotels
• Reduce Letting Rates / Water Rates
• Remove Toll into Drogheda
• Motor Home park
• Package Drogheda as a place to relocate companies to – 4/5 key points to present to IDA
• Educate Drogheda people about benefits of shopping locally
• Drogheda business owners to support Drogheda Suppliers

If you are a business owner, why not suggest some actions yourself - you can either post them here or email enquiries@droghedachamber.com directly.