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Bantry town centre must not be forgotten now

December 14th, 2017 5:47 PM

By Kieran O'Mahony

FOUR MARTINS AND AN AMY: RTÉ broacaster Marty Morrissey with SuperValu managing director Martin Kelleher, Martin Hourihan from Bantry, who has 41 years' service at SuperValu Bantry, and celebrity chef from Kinsale's Fishy Fishy, Martin Shanahan, were all at the opening of the new €8.5m store at Harb

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While councillors have welcomed the opening of two new supermarkets in Bantry, they have also called for the town centre to be protected and developed.

 

WHILE councillors have welcomed the opening of two new supermarkets in Bantry, they have also called for the town centre to be protected and developed.

At a meeting of the Municipal District of West Cork in Clonakilty this week, Cllr Mary Hegarty (FG) said it would be very remiss of her not to mention the opening of both Lidl’s new store on the Glengarriff Road, and SuperValu’s new supermarket overlooking Bantry Bay.

‘It’s great to see people coming back into the town and the town looks great, with the Christmas lights up. I must congratulate Bantry Business Association (BBA) and all the Council staff who have helped with this,’ said Cllr Hegarty.

‘However, we do need to keep the town centre vibrant,  as it has changed, and we need to keep on top of that, and this includes the work to be done on the culvert there.’

Cllr Hegarty also suggested that if there’s funding available under schemes like the Painting Scheme, then they should support buildings and make them attractive and get people in to support the businesses there.

Cllr Patrick Gerard Murphy (FF) said it was great to see two new supermarkets open in Bantry and said the centre of the town will regenerate itself with an effort by their strategic group.

Cllr Danny Collins (Ind) said it was great to see that the people of Bantry now have a choice and that there was ‘a great buzz around the town all weekend.’

‘We do have to work together on the centre of the town and work with both business owners and residents to keep it buzzing and that is very important,’ said Cllr Collins.

Cllr Paul Hayes (SF) also welcomed the developments in Bantry and pointed at the new road surface going out towards Lidl as one example.

‘There has been some great work done in the town, including work on the public toilets and other bits and pieces. An awful lot of work has been done over the past year in Bantry,’ said Cllr Hayes.

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