Three weeks ago I was driving southwards through the village of Garvagh. Just after I had entered the village I noticed three or four workmen in front of a vacant shop to my left. The front door was open. A new shop sign had been erected above the shop window. Some brave entrepreneur I thought. Maybe it would be a small speciality emporium or a farm shop.
Last Friday I had cause to be driving through Garvagh again. What of the new shop? Well at first glance it appeared that Garvagh General Stores had opened its doors and that an old public house next door to it had also bucked the economic trend and was welcoming patrons once more. A second glance robbed me of this bucolic view of the village idyll There weren't two new village businesses,but rather two sets of well painted hoardings and window insets.
I suppose that the main street of this small village looks tidier as a result of this commercial artwork . The proprietor of the rather old fashioned filling station on the opposite side of the road certainly thinks so. Tidier it may be but the painting over of the widening cracks in the commercial economy of our towns and villages does not provide replacement jobs. Perhaps the money spent on paint and hardboard should be spent on something that has the potential for a true economic return.
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