Council chairman reiterates call for people to shop local

Cathaoirleach of Leitrim County Council, Enda McGloin is urging people to support local businesses as Ireland enters its ninth week of lockdown as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Cllr McGloin said our lives have changed in many ways since An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar announced the decision of Government to curtail our social interactions in early March. Here he makes a plea to communities to back their local businesses:

The announcement by An Taoiseach on May the 1st to publish a roadmap for reopening our society & business to ease the Covid 19 restrictions and reopen Ireland’s economy and society in a phased manner will be welcome news for many of us living here in Co Leitrim especially the many business owners who had to shut their doors last March.

It is important to acknowledge at this stage the exceptional service many of our communities have received from their local shops many based in the heart of our rural communities who organised a magnificent delivery service many in co-operation with their local GAA clubs this service has done much to copper fasten the connection between the local shop and the local parish which is very welcome.

The Government have announced 5 phases that set out how life as we knew it will return to some kind of normality however social distancing will be very much part of our lives until a vaccination can be found. Many of our local businesses spread across Leitrim will be allowed to trade again from May 18 including garden centres, car repairs and sales, electrical sales and repairs to name but a few.

The guidelines as set out allow for most businesses to be fully open by the middle of August however if the current trend of downward infection and mortality rates does not continue then of course the Government will curtail and delay these reopening phases so we as a community must continue to adhere to public health guidelines and social distancing.

The wider impact on our business community of this pandemic so far must not be under estimated by us here in Leitrim.
Recent statistics have informed us that online shopping has increased drastically over the last 8 weeks or so. DPD the parcel delivery company recently announced its intention to create over 120 jobs to meet this new demand.

The downside for what we call the ‘high street trader’ is that many will continue to buy online and move away from many of the shops and outlets locally that we may have frequented in the past.

The opening up of various phases will allow also for greater movement beyond the 2 and 5km limits of recent months during this time many shoppers relied on their ‘local’ shop for food and groceries.

Many will decide to move to the larger towns for their provisions and perhaps choose to abandon their local shops that have diligently supplied their food needs during the worst time of the pandemic.

Variety they say is the spice of life and it is inevitable that many of our smaller shops may not have the variety of products or choice that many modern families demand that will always lead many of us to source those goods in the large multiple stores and there is nothing wrong with that however it is always worth considering supporting the local shop first and foremost and putting money back into our own community.

Many public commentators and some politicians have criticised government policy over many years that has failed to halt the decline of rural communities particularly the closure of post offices was singled out as a contributary element of decline.
Some years ago a public meeting was held in a rural part of Co Mayo to protest at one such closure where most of the rural dwellers attended an angry meeting however some naval gazing was prompted when statistics revealed to that same community where for example there were over 150 homes local to the post office however less than 50 TV licences were sold from that same office, this fact along with a few more revealed that it wasn’t that the community were not compliant with the law it was just that they happened to have pretty good broadband and did most of their post office business on line.

The moral of the story even in this time of crisis is use it or lose it, we need to hold on to our small local country shops so we can continue to have interesting neighbourhoods that foster community among its inhabitants.
Leitrim Co Council like many of our local authorities have played a strong role during the pandemic in particular in the establishment of the community response forum established to ensure nobody was forgotten, in particular the most vulnerable in our communities.
The forum established that most of the local food stores in the county were taking orders over the phone and delivering direct to their over 70’s customers who were isolating or cocooning in their own homes.

In 2019 approximately €6m was collected in rates by the local authority to fund a variety of services including community services, housing grants, town and village renewal, the arts, playgrounds, age friendly economic development and tourism promotion to name but a few, the impact of the Covid 19 pandemic will have a deep effect on this revenue source, if as we fear many of those aforementioned local shops are affected and forced to close, not only will have an impact on the community they serve but equally this will have an impact on the body that drives economic and infrastructural development in our County, Leitrim County Council.

I continue to urge the citizens of this county to be mindful of the many small and community-based business spread across our communities be they town, village or rural based.

We may see light at the end of the tunnel through the 5 reopening phases however if the effort is not made to support local business during these phases then many of them may never reopen and if they do may not be able to stay in business over the next 12 months.