Published: Thursday, 8th July, 2010 4:00pm

A heritage worth supporting

by Editorial Department

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It's hardly a ghost town, but the recession has hit Enniskillen town centre.

As many as 23 shops lie empty from one end of the town to another. Competition from bigger outlets and the expense of rent and rates are squeezing businesses.

Enniskillen town centre is an attractive and pleasant place to visit and there can be few who would like to see the independents who give our town its own character facing hard times.

It's right that the town centre should be supported -- whether it is improved signs to make the shopping experience that little bit easier for new shoppers to the town or a bit more effort on keeping the town spotless. Our beautiful island town can indeed appear to be occasionally on the tatty side when rubbish is left to float in the river and errant shopping trolleys are dumped to rust. It's not just the traders who would benefit from a clean town -- we all take pride in Enniskillen's good looks.

One trader made an interesting comment -- that the heritage of the town centre must be saved. He is absolutely right. The family businesses where we buy our goods and have a chat with the familiar shop keepers and their staff is a part of our heritage we all want to keep. It is part of the heart of the town. Enniskillen would be a town without a soul if it lost these vital tradespeople.

But that does not mean we need to maintain the town in aspic and keep on some business practices as relics of the past. Longer opening hours have been mentioned in Council and they are worth examining, especially when people can shop 24/7 in other locations and on-line.

The tradespeople of our town should be supported. But they too must look closely at how well they are serving the customer. A small example: at the weekend an Enniskillen business had erected a sign on its window saying "Open late tonight". Unless the customer was intimately involved in the business practices of that particular outlet, he would have been none the wiser as to when "late" was. When you are new to a place, you need up-to-date, useful information.

The fact that the traders have got together to push for action is good. For a number of years Enniskillen was unlike Lisnaskea and Irvinestown in that there was no chamber or collective organisation for traders. The coming together can only be a good thing. The response from Councillors to the call for more support was well received.

Our county town is worth supporting as are the traders who work there. Let's hope this initiative is a positive move in the right direction.