More than 20 new businesses have opened in Cork in the last 12 months

More than 20 new businesses have opened in Cork in the last 12 months.

More than 20 new businesses have opened in Cork in the last 12 months

More than 20 new businesses have opened in Cork in the last 12 months.

According to a group of city businesses, this is proof that the city is thriving and that new traffic restrictions are not hampering trade.

The list, compiled by the People's Republic of Cork website, includes five bars, four restaurants and four clothes shops.

It also includes several gyms, including Flyefit which will soon open in a long-vacant building on Oliver Plunkett Street.

These new retail businesses are alongside the thousands of office jobs coming on stream in the city in the coming months.

Four city business owners contacted the Irish Examiner to dispel recent criticism of the city centre.

They say that innovation and adaptation is the key to handling changing business trends and that the number of new city businesses are proof that Cork is improving.

Eoin Kennedy of digital marketing agency Zone Digital, Rob Horgan of Vélo café, Justine Looney of Cork Flower Studio and Pat O'Connell of K O'Connell fishmongers spoke out in response to recent negative press surrounding the city.

It comes in the wake of the foundation of a new business organisation - the Cork City Traders Association - which is calling for the removal of the bus priority measures on St Patrick's Street which ban private cars from the street between 3pm and 6.30pm daily.

The CCTA say that the measure is 'anti-small business' and has contributed to the closure of a number of city businesses already.

However, Mr O'Connell said that the number of new businesses is a more accurate picture of city trading: "The complaints are selective, narrow-minded and frustrating, and it affects business. They picked out a few businesses that closed, some of which were down to retirements, not trading, and ignored the dozens that are opening. Any city will have closures, any city will have openings."

Mr Kennedy agreed. He said that closures are inevitable - but that businesses can thrive if they adapt:

The opportunity is there if people get their heads out of the sand. We need to remember that we are competing with cities in Europe for a young, educated workforce that wants to live in a city and enjoy it.

"The city does close down; there is no after-work culture here which you see in other cities.

"Why are shops closing at the time of day when people are leaving work and would go shopping? People need to think differently.

"Just because you've always done it that way doesn't mean it always has to be done that way."

Mr Horgan said that the traffic changes, which are part of an overall plan to revamp the city's traffic flows, are essential for the future of the city.

Several major developments will mean that thousands more people will be working in the city: "We need to let our city develop and be positive about it. We were a big village a few years ago and now we are rapidly becoming a big city.

"There will be 10,000 more people working in the city in a few years time - 10,000 extra cars would kill it."

He said that rather than seeing a downturn in the last 12 months, his business has grown.

Ms Looney reported the same for her florist's shop on Douglas Street. She said that the removal of traffic from city streets will lead to a living city: "We sometimes forget about the communities in the city.

"The middle parish and other areas like that have huge communities that, in many cases, don't come into the city because it's not friendly or safe.

"With fewer cars on the road, more people will come in and more people will live here. It should be about people being able to use the city and not just people coming in to work in the city but live in it."

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