Grafton Street retailer Brown Thomas said it banned the use of its name by neighbouring car-park owners following their lack of support for the pedestrianisation of South William Street.
A spokesman for the department store said it was “fully supportive” of the pedestrianisation of the street, despite suggestions by some Dublin city councillors that it was blocking the move.
Councillors earlier this month unanimously agreed to include the pedestrianisation of South William Street as an objective in the new city development plan.
[ Dublin’s South William Street to be fully pedestrianisedOpens in new window ]
Last summer, cars were permanently banned from several areas around Grafton Street, including South Anne Street, Dame Court and most of Drury Street. However, they were only banned from a 30m stretch of South William Street.
While trials in 2020 had shown overwhelming public support for the pedestrianisation of South William Street, the move was opposed by the owners of the Brown Thomas Car Park, now known as the Grafton Car Park.
The council had asked the car-park owners if it would be possible to reverse their entry and exit arrangements to make South William Street an entry point to the car park with exit from Clarendon Street. “This would then allow for the majority of the street to be pedestrianised,” the council said.
The car-park owners said doing so would pose “insurmountable structural difficulties that cannot be overcome”.
Proposing the inclusion of the full pedestrianisation in the city development plan Green Party councillor Claire Byrne said the council “cannot be beholden to one retail unit in the city and their car park”.
‘Held hostage’
Social Democrat councillor Catherine Stocker said: “We really can’t be held hostage in terms of our city design by the car park of a shop.”
However, Brown Thomas said it was backing the pedestrianisation and had last year rescinded the licence for the car-park owners to use the name of the store, in part because of their opposition to the measure. “We do not own or operate the Grafton Car Park, formerly known as Brown Thomas Car Park, and it is our view that the operators of the car park should do all they can to facilitate the council with their proposal for South William Street.”
When the pedestrianisation plan for the Grafton area was published in 2020 Brown Thomas had lodged an objection with the council, saying it would “severely and adversely impact customer vehicle access” and pose a “significant public health risk” from congregating crowds.
A spokesman for the company said this submission had been made at a time of Covid-19 lockdown when there had been incidents of public disorder in the area, and since then the city council had largely addressed its traffic-management concerns. The company, now called Brown Thomas Arnotts, had been supportive of the pedestrianisation of South William Street since 2021, he said.
“Brown Thomas Arnotts is fully supportive of all initiatives to improve the city centre, including the Dublin City Council [DCC] pedestrianisation proposal for South William Street. This support has been communicated to both DCC and DublinTown on numerous occasions, most recently in writing directly to DCC as recently as May of this year,” he said.
“Brown Thomas Arnotts recognises the need for action to be taken to bring Dublin city centre back to its most beautiful best, a place for everyone to enjoy, both for the millions of tourists visiting and Irish people enjoying our capital city and all it has to offer.”
Car park owners Stanberry Investments Ltd did not respond to requests for comment.
