Shops on the Main Street cannot compete with online businesses for convenience or cost, but they can on experience. We must make shopping in our main streets a pleasant experience. Pedestrian areas where one can linger without feeling claustrophobic from noisy, polluting motor traffic, but instead wander from shop to shop and sit outside in fine weather - under canopies when needed.

Every Main Street in Kildare should have a car-free day once a month. Small businesses will find it hard to get a foot in the door without a shop front. Closing the Main Street once a month on a weekend day for pop-up stalls and get people supporting small local businesses and give opportunity for new business ideas to be tried on stalls. Keep people in local towns at weekends rather than trips to Dublin, etc. This would allow local businesses to cheaply advertise their existence and their services, even if they are mostly an online offering. For instance, in Leixlip, the LAP shows Arthur Guinness square being used for civic purposes instead of car parking. Combine that area with the Main Street from Captain’s Hill to Buckley’s Lane, and a very inviting event can be put on.

When bypasses or major new roads are opened (e.g. Naas bypass, Maynooth bypass, new Celbridge bridge), the town centres should be restricted in some way for private motor traffic while still allowing deliveries, active travel and public transport.