Councillors challenge Sligo commercial vacancy rates as BID defends decade of positive contributions

By Philip Rooney, The Sligo Champion

From Christmas lights and ice rinks to managing Queen Maeve Square and invigorating the night time economy, the work being carried out by Sligo Business Improvement District (BID) was highlighted at a presentation given to Councillors at last Monday’s monthly meeting of Sligo County Council.

A detailed presentation by Gail McGibbon, CEO of Sligo BID gave a thorough breakdown of the work carried out in a variety of fields, while Finbarr Filan also took questions from elected representatives during which he rubbished claims by the GeoDirectory regarding the vacancy rates in Sligo town centre.

Addressing the elected representatives, Ms McGibbon explained, Sligo BID was established in 2016 and encompasses 758 businesses with representatives from 43 different businesses having sat on the board since it was established. It is an independent business with an annual budget of €350,000 that is run for the benefit of local businesses with one of the key objectives being to create a sustainable model of town centre management.

It is was outlined to the meeting some of the benefits to the town and to the Council of partnering with Sligo BID. For example the St Patrick’s Day festivities have grown from a two hour parade into a three day festival with a 67% increase in the number of groups registering in the parade while there has also been a 31% increase in the number of floats. The festival attracts in the region of 35,000 visitors to the area.

However, it was also revealed that costs have spiralled in recent years. For example, in 2016 the cost of hosting the St Patrick's Day parade was €8,000 while this year that was the costs just for insurance.

The success of the Love Sligo gift card was also highlighted as a success story with sales of the gift card totalling €1.7m since its launch 23 months ago. Over 250 businesses take part in this scheme resulting in 50,000 instore transactions at zero cost to the businesses.

Referring to the work that goes in to making Sligo as festive as possible for the Christmas period it was revealed in 2016 there weren’t enough lights for the entirety of O’Connell Street. Now Sligo BID have a stock of Christmas lights to the value of €250,000 while there is also €60,000 worth of summer signage and street directions.

Sligo Tidy Towns has also benefited from the establishment of Sligo BID as they have received sponsorship to the tune of €30,000 per annum since 2016. The cleanliness in the town was further enhanced by the 456 flowering baskets that went up this year, funded by BID.

The role played by Sligo BID in the town’s tourist office was also emphasised with McGibbon noting the office operates on a model of partnership between Sligo BID, Sligo County Council, Leader and Fáilte Ireland. The office is deemed by Fáilte Ireland to be “high performing” with 2,000 visitors in 2024 and an average of 150-300 visitors per day.

While there were many positives highlighted, the issue of a Christmas market in Queen Maeve Square once again proved to be contentious while Cllr Thomas Walsh also took issue with the square’s newest feature, ‘the living wall’ saying the cost associated with the wall at €20,430 is an “interesting figure.”

Cllr Walsh also expressed his disappointment with the letter he received from BID when he sought for more effort to be made to secure a Christmas market for the square. “I will be supporting you for another term but I would like more engagement. The letter is less of a standard than we would have expected.”

In reply Ms McGibbon said the figures and costings quoted in the letter were based on “Reaching out to other Councils. We are not the solution provider. That is an unfair burden to put on us.”

It was suggested that wooden huts in Achonry would be ideal for a Christmas market but Gail poured cold water on that idea saying, “We looked at the huts in Achonry months ago. They were built specifically to sit in front of a concrete space in Achonry.” She also noted, “The success of the ice rink means footfall is limited.”

In relation to the hosting of a Christmas market in Queen Maeve Square other challenges such as the weather and lack of space due to the success of the ice rink were also highlighted as obstacles with the consensus from Gail and Finbarr being that if a Christmas market is to be hosted it has to be top quality.

With regards the future of the square Ms McGibbon noted, “We asked all organisations to come forward with suggestions as to how to use the resource. Do you know how many we got? None.”

Finbarr Filan also responded to some of the issues stressing, “It is not a key objective of Sligo BID to manage Queen Maeve Square. We are delighted to do it but it is not a key objective."

"The Living Wall is fantastic. It is about making your town better. Most of the funding came from the positive climate fund,“ he added.

Further emphasising the philosophy of the group Mr Filan said, “We don’t do half measures. If we can’t do top notch we won’t do it.”

Cllr Dara Mulvey returned to the topic of the night time economy and praised BID for their proactive work in relation to the ‘Ask for Angela’ initiative whereby patrons can ask staff for ‘Angela’ if for any reason they feel unsafe.

Ms McGibbon said Sligo was the only town across the UK and Ireland to work with a variety of agencies including the Rape Crisis Network and An Garda Siochana to help ensure the safety of all who wish to enjoy a night out in the town.

The success of that co-operation was backed up by figures quoted by Mr Filan who said a recent survey reveals 95% of people feel safe in Sligo.

"Ireland is the second safest country in the world to live. Dublin is the fifth safest capital. From a business point of view the lack of gardaí during the daytime rather than the night is the issue.”

The issue of vacancy was also addressed by Cllr Michael Clarke with Mr Filan replying, “The vacancy rate drives me mad when it comes out."

It was revealed Sligo BID purchased the data from GeoDirectory that they use to determine the level of vacancy in towns across the country. However, Mr Filan claimed he discovered “considerable anomalies” within the figures.

"We interrogated the GeoDirectory data. My building is listed as vacant twice on GeoDirectory. 50% of all buildings listed as vacant are occupied between the Garda Station and the Southern Hotel,” he said.

He added, “We purchased the Sligo data direct from the company. I presume the stats they put online are the same stats but I don’t know that for definite. We have developed an app to carry out a survey on the ground but it is a work in progress.”

Cllr Declan Bree responded: “I’m really concerned about the data provided by GeoDirectory. How can we as a Council or a country move forward. I think they should close down the business.”

Sligo County Council Chief Executive Martin Lydon suggested revisiting the idea of Christmas markets and will be meeting representatives of Sligo BID in January or February.

"It needs to be good,” he stressed. I’ve been to Christmas markets around this country where they are charging €12 for a hotdog, it needs to be better than that. We work really well with BID and there are lots of good things happening.”