A joint three-way initiative by Waterford City, Waterford Chamber of Commerce and Waterford City Centre Retailers Association has seen a co-ordinated approach to tackling the challenges faced by the City Centre.  

The three parties have been working furiously behind the scenes to come up with a number of joint initiatives to promote the City for Halloween and Christmas.

Hallowe'en Spookfest
Starting on Monday, 26th October there will be a series of events in the city centre celebrating Halloween. 

Watch out for the daily Scary Mask Hunt competition. The Competition is supported by WLR FM. Simply listen out for clues and you could win a €50 shopping voucher. Halloween Spookfest ends with a Children's Spooks parade on Saturday, 31st October at 4pm. There will be scary stories at 3pm, lots of fun, with fantastic prizes for the 3 scariest children's costumes, prizes very kindly sponsored by Hasbro.

Christmas In Waterford
A whole series of events are planned to mark the start of Christmas which will see the return of the hugely popular Carousel. Christmas in Waterford kicks off with Waterford Fashion Week running from the 10th to 14th of November. Watch out for further details over the next week or so.  

However, perhaps the one initiative that will grab the headlines is the announcement that the City Council and a number of the other car park operators in the City are to pilot a scheme of half price car parking. Lead by the City Council there will be a pilot scheme running from Monday, 9th November right up to and including Christmas Eve. All car parks participating in the scheme will run half price car parking up to 12 noon Monday to Friday during this period. At present, the City Council is taking the lead in the scheme and other car parks operators are expected to join in due course.

"With the new bridge opening shortly and the launch of these initiatives we hope to help attract visitors to the City over the festive period. The joint initiatives are designed to coincide with the opening of the "gateway" bridge. Waterford will shortly be the closest City to Dublin and as a result we need to optimise the opportunity of attracting people and business to our city. All the initiatives launched today need buy-in from the local businesses and members of the public alike. We would encourage people to shop local to help protect local jobs and local business," a spokesperson said.

The series of events and initiatives was launched by Mayor John Halligan and representatives from the three groups involved.