— Residents say Insomnia cafe still open a week after franchise owner claimed it would close.
A Eurospar shop in Dublin, which claimed to be sacking staff because of cycle lane, is now hiring staff while the cycle lane has remained in place.
IrishCycle.com could not establish if there were redundancies or not.
According to local residents, the Insomnia cafe within the Kilmainham Eurospar in Dublin is also still open a week after the franchise owner claimed it would close because of the newly segregated cycle lanes on the South Circular Road.
Some members of the public pointed out online that if there were job losses as claimed, that this might have more to do with the retailer opening up a dedicated coffee shop a few doors down from the shop.
The Eurospar on the South Circular Road originally posted notices on their windows around November 15, at most days after just part of the cycle route was installed. Public consultation for the project was held last Summer.
The two first signs were printed on an A4 sheet of paper with a Eurospar header and both were signed by the shop owner Luke Creighan. Creighan also runs Natural Bakery outlets.
One of the signs claimed: “Dear customers, I would just like to inform you our insomnia cafe will close on Sunday 21 of November with the loss of 2 staff due to the severe impact the new traffic layout has outside the shop. Also, unfortunately, we also must let go 3 staff in the Eurospar due to the impact caused. Thank you.”
The other sign: “Dear customers, The new traffic restrictions outside our shop are having a severe impact on our day-to-day business operations to our customers. These have been put in place by Dublin City council. There was no contact with the local business in the area before these were installed.
It continued; “While I have no issues with the safe cycle lane provided, there have been no discussions with local businesses how everyone can be facilitated. Please contact your local Dublin City area office and your local councillors if you feel this has impacted you. Your local green councillor Michael Pidgeon michael@pidgeon.ie.”
A new sign was shared online over the weekend which seek people to apply for jobs in the Eurospar. The new sign states: “Staff wanted. Full time / part time sales assistant required” and gives details of possible work times and an email address used by the Kilmainham Eurospar.
Kilmainham Eurospar did not respond to requests for comment before the publication of this article.
Meanwhile, the chairperson of the Dublin Cycling Campaign has asked Dublin City Council to stop installing narrow cycle lanes beside wide traffic lanes on this and other projects. The plastic bollards on the route were narrowed in after on-site consultation with a number of local businesses.
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