Quarter of town premises are idle

There has been an increase in the number of vacant shops and offices in the traditional commercial heart of Athlone during the last year, with more than one in four units now lying idle. On Monday, the Westmeath Independent carried out an informal survey of commercial units on the town's most prominent streets. We covered the length of Sean Costello Street and continued through Mardyke Street, Dublingate Street, Church Street, Custume Place, Barrack Street, Pearse Street and Connaught Street. It was the second time we had carried out this survey to assess the level of retail vacancies in the town's commercial core. On the first occasion - in April 2011 - we found that 24.6% of units along this route were unoccupied, with the majority of these carrying notices advertising them for rental. Eleven months on, we counted a total of 204 commercial and office premises on the same route. Of these, 57 (or 27.9%) of the units were unoccupied. We only included units which faced directly onto the streets in question, so shops inside the Athlone Towncentre, Left Bank Mall and Golden Island retail areas did not feature in our total. Nevertheless, the 3.3% increase in vacancies in the area surveyed in less than a year highlights the increasing toll which the recession is taking on Athlone. One local retailer, who has been in business in the town for the last 25 years, said the present economic climate was worse than anything he had seen in the 1980s. "If you speak to anybody in business they're going to tell you that it's exceptionally quiet," said the shop owner, who didn't want to be named. "The recession in the '80s was bad, but this is a lot worse. Society and people's lifestyles have changed so much over the years." Discussing factors which have influenced the downturn in trade, he stated that many families which previously resided in the centre of town have moved out to peripheral areas. He also said the cost of living had increased - pointing out that expenses associated with keeping a car on the road or sending a child to school were now much higher than in the '80s. He said the problems facing local retailers boiled down to this: "There is a lack of cash in the system. People haven't got the money to spend. It's as simple as that."