A city councillor is calling for the pedestrianisation of Cross Street to be made a permanent measure in order to support outdoor dining.
Galway City Council made Cross Street into a pedestrian street in July of last year as part of efforts by the city council to help the seating capacity of businesses serving food and drink.
This was important for hospitality businesses during the summer when they were allowed to reopen, but with limitations on capacity, and then when indoor dining was shut down once again.
Councillor Alan Cheevers has submitted a motion for the city council to make this a permanent change, and is calling for the city council to look at other areas where this could also be introduced.
Outdoor seating will become a big issue again this summer, as the hospitality sector is at the back of the queue when it comes to the phased reopening of the country.
It is possible that the hospitality sector could be allowed to start reopening from the end of May, but this will likely focus on outdoor dining at first in order to keep transmission rates down.
Cross Street is locating right in the heart of Galway’s Latin Quarter, with a significant numbers of pubs, restaurants and takeaways located on it, or right around the corner.
“I believe that this is a long term solution to help businesses in hospitality to have outdoor dining and create more revenue which will be vital for their businesses post Covid,” Cllr Cheevers said.
The current move was “very beneficial” to surrounding businesses during the summer and should be rolled out across the city he added.
in similar vein Cork City Council has announced this week that it will be permanently pedestrianising 17 streets in the city that had already been closed to traffic on a temporary basis for similar reasons.
