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Waterford restaurant owner hits out at advertising ban

Waterford restaurant owner hits out at advertising ban

The owner of an award winning restaurant in Waterford City says they may as well be shut down if they can't advertise outside their premises.

The Bay Tree Bistro on Merchants Quay is one of a number of businesses who have been told by the local authority to remove their sandwich boards.

They will be allowed to display them again once they pay over €600 each.

Keith Boyle told WLR News that "restaurants like us rely heavily on our sandwich boards, not just to attract people in but also to sell what we have. Today we had a delivery of fresh mussels, they're being paired with tomatoes from a local grower and fresh basil from another local grower. So, there's three items in one dish that are sourced in the city and I can't tell anybody about them, to showcase that we're supporting local communities and local farmers."

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Keith Boyle says restaurants and businesses are struggling at this time of the year: We're in the middle of a heatwave, which is absolutely fantastic for the country, but not good for restaurant business. There's nobody who wants to be sitting in a restaurant in the heat with no air conditioning on when the sun is shining. We faced the snow week back in March, which nearly closed most places down. So, we were fighting and still fighting to get our revenue back from the week that we lost. Now the sun has come in so, Irish people are gone to the beaches and having BBQ's so again the restaurants are starting to struggle. And then we get told no we have to take our advertising as well."

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