Less than 10 days ago, it was revealed that McDonald’s have applied for permission to branch their franchise into New Ross in County Wexford…
A site notice was erected with the intention to apply for planning permission at the Portersland Ring Road roundabout on the outskirts of New Ross town.
The development plans include a single storey drive-thru restaurant with a car park to accommodate for accessible parking, EV parking and bicycle parking.
However, a well-known community group in New Ross, New Ross Neighbourhood Watch, which is very active on social media has pledged to oppose the opening of McDonald’s in the South Wexford town.
They have pledged that an “official petition” will be distributed and, as a result, they will likely oppose the official planning.
One person who was supportive of the opening of the McDonald’s in New Ross was New Ross based County Councillor, Michael Sheehan.
Speaking to the Irish Independent, Sheehan said:
“The fact that a franchise is hoping to invest and expand their business in the town tells me that there’s great confidence to be had in New Ross and I would hope that it would make the town much more attractive to other named brands to invest in the area,” he added.
The community group had written an “open letter” online, addressing their concerns and raising their points on why the global franchise shouldn’t be opened.
“We as restaurateurs strongly object to McDonald’s restaurant establishing themselves in New Ross.
We are mainly small family run businesses giving employment to as many people as we can and we are already struggling to survive with rising costs from food suppliers and running costs and trying to absorb these costs ourselves without passing price rises to our loyal customers
We are already competing with each other on a daily basis to hold valuable customers . We cannot be expected and is unreasonable and unfair to expect us to compete with a global giant such as McDonald’s infiltrating our small town
The result for all our buisnesses will be catastrophic We simply cannot compete with there offers on food and facilities
In a recent news article Micheal Sheehan stated that McDonald’s will create 30/50 new jobs This is a false statement as they won’t create NEW jobs they will simply REPLACE jobs that will be lost in an already highly competitive hospitality sector in new Ross
It is also a false statement to say it will increase footfall in the centre as its location on the ring road will have the opposite effect
We greatly appreciate the efforts in recent years to make new Ross more attractive to visitors with our many murals and beautiful park and the gardens replacing the tanks and at the high steps
People visit our town from far and wide to sightsee shop and most importantly for us to eat in our restaurants we cannot afford to lose these visitors to a drive thru on the ring road we need them to put money in our cash registers to support staff already employed with us
Both owners and staff are extremely worried distressed and upset at the prospect of this global giant stomping on our livelihoods
We strongly ask you to not allow McDonald’s to establish themselves in new Ross and kill the jobs and buisnesses of our already struggling hospitality sector
You will shortly receive an official petition against them.”
While some points are valid, other members of the New Ross community hit out at the open letter, including Sandra Kehoe who stated:
“Oh for god sake, let the town progress. If you keep objecting to other businesses coming to town it’s never going to progress. This town is on its knees as it is. McDonalds won’t affect the chippers and restaurants in the town,” she said.
Another New Ross business that wishes to distance themselves from the open letter and the petition was pizza joint, Four Star Pizza ran by Christina and Tom Chapman, who wanted to clarify that “we are not one of the traders objecting to the planning application.” They said that if they are approached to sign any petition in the future, they will not be signing it.
“Big brand like this would hopefully give confidence to other big household brand names to open in New Ross. Variety & progress is key to opening up New Ross and bringing more people into town,” a statement from Four Star Pizza read.
One of the major themes from the open letter from the community group was that a global giant like McDonald’s would be taking customers, and in turn money, from smaller New Ross hospitality businesses.
Another two New Ross businesses that wanted to distance themselves from the petition were M&J Restaurant New Ross and Raymondo’s New Ross. For Christina and Tom Chapman from Four Star Pizza, they believe that competition is in fact healthy:
“To keep it real, yes competition from a worldwide brand name like McDonalds brings its element of concern as a food outlet trading near us. But the bigger picture is that this is progress for the town and competition can be healthy,” they said.
Speaking on the matter further today, Cllr Michael Sheehan said:
“As a county we need to up the retail offering because too many of our people are going to Waterford, Kilkenny and Dublin to do their shopping. We have the capacity to do that here, we just never had the political will. We need representatives who understand how the economics of this work, understand how the economy works and make sure that we have the infrastructure so the multinationals have a second look at Wexford. The fact that McDonalds have indicated they are coming to town by submitting an application is a good indication of things to come. I would expect Supermacs to come in behind them. We need to get more multinationals in like Dunnes Stores, Penney’s, particularly, and there is a need for one, a Marks & Spencers.”
The notice will remain erected for just over three more weeks. A petition has not been seen online. It remains to be seen whether anyone will object, and for what reasons.
Jason Redmond
From Gorey, Jason is the owner of Wexford Weekly. He is also a post-primary English and History teacher.
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It’s absurd to believe that McDonald’s somehow represent progress. Their rise in popularity in the United States is linked with an increase in obesity and diabetes. They also are notoriously anti union. New Ross will be better off without them.