Leitrim councillor calls for changes to where casual traders can operate in Leitrim Towns

Cllr Enda McGloin has called for action to be taken to change the spaces available to casual traders who are oppertating in Leitrim towns and villages.

McGloin is concerned that casual traders, like food trucks or fresh food produce stands, are taking up parking spaces in town centres, which then limit parking spaces that are available for customers of rate-paying businesses in the area.

“My concern relates to the fact that in some towns, Leitrim County Council has allocated trading bays on existing car parking places right in the centre of the town, and that's not something I am happy with,” Cllr McGloin told Ocean FM.

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“I think we should find alternative locations, maybe not in areas that impact those trading in the permanent locations of shops and supermarkets or whatever else that are in the locations of town centres.”

The North Leitrim councillor is calling for a review of the county council’s by-laws around casual trading.

“I want to make it clear, I'm not against casual trading by any means,” he says. “I believe they have a place in County Leitrim, but I believe they have a place which is not taking up car parking places in the town centres that serve existing rate-paying premises.”

He highlights the importance of rate payers, like brick-and-mortar shopkeepers, to funding infrastructure projects in the county.

“We need town centre car parking to maximum load to facilitate our rate-paying shopkeepers … They are the people who come up and pay the extra money that allows us to borrow the money to match-fund the funding and the grants that we get from central government.”

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