Loyalist flag protests which are damaging Belfast’s economy on the busiest day of the week should be moved to Saturday mornings, city centre traders have said.
The area should be clear by midday to allow afternoon shopping to proceed, the Belfast Chamber of Trade and Commerce said.
Heavily-policed rallies have been held outside the city hall against the City Council’s decision to restrict the flying of the Union flag, leaving businesses counting the cost.
Castlecourt shopping centre manager Paul McMahon said: “If you lose retail sales on a particular day you have more than likely lost them for good.
“In the past, they came back two or three days later or at the weekend.
“Now they go home and go online.”
Loyalists angry at the decision to restrict flag flying to designated days like royal birthdays have organised weeks of protests involving blocking roads.
Some demonstrations degenerated into violence, with petrol bombs and other missiles thrown and scores of police officers injured.
Serious rioting erupted outside the city hall after the council voted on December 3 to change its emblems policy, but trouble since then has retreated to outlying areas like East Belfast and has become much less frequent since community workers, politicians and former paramilitaries in the area called for peace.
Several loyalist rallies have been held in Belfast city centre and traders have suffered through the disruption while the numbers using public transport to visit the city has fallen.
Mr McMahon, deputy chairman of the chamber of trade, told a committee of MLAs at Stormont the extra £1.5 million of government and private money used to boost the city centre was welcome.
“It has really helped business get back on its feet but you are not going to solve the problems encountered through December,” he said.
He warned that shoppers had taken to their computers rather than venturing into stores and said it was important to ensure people were encouraged to visit the city centre.
He added: “Anything that detracts from that experience has an instant effect, that is why we have to make sure that things function to the optimum.”
Gordon Dunne, a DUP member of the devolved assembly at Stormont, said the protests had been overplayed by members of the media and felt a more positive image needed to be displayed.
“The media have certainly exploited it and used it and abused it and it is important that you remain positive on what you are doing in inviting people into Belfast,” he told the chamber of commerce.
Chamber president Joe Jordan said traders had tried to stay out of the media coverage.
“It is the frequency and timing of the protests that has hit the economy so hard,” he said.
He questioned why Belfast City Council decided to change its flag policy in December.
“A lot of my members rely on December as being the harvest month, that is the month that carries them for the other 11 months,” he said.
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