A decision to grant permission for a discount supermarket in An Spid\u00e9al has been appealed to the higher planning authority.<\/p>\n
The Aldi store is the third proposed discount supermarket under challenge in Co Galway at present, with the owners of local Supervalu shops in Loughrea and Portumna involved in separate High Court actions seeking to overturn permission granted for Lidl stores in the two towns.<\/p>\n
There has been considerable local opposition to the proposed Aldi development, with claims of an adverse visual impact on the area and negative consequences for long established business in An Spid\u00e9al.<\/p>\n
Galway County Council granted permission for the Aldi store to include an off-licence, ESB substation, standalone deposit return scheme and associated site works.<\/p>\n
But now appeals have been lodged with An Coimisi\u00fan Plean\u00e1la by local retail interests and others \u2014 Martin O\u2019Donnell, Nigel Slemon, Noel Kavanagh, Michael A Cadden and F\u00f3ram Chois Fharraige um Plean\u00e1il Teanga.<\/p>\n
The proposed development includes 123 car parking spaces, four electric vehicle spaces along with nine parent and child spaces. A total of 16 bicycle parking spaces will also be provided.<\/p>\n
Vehicular and pedestrian access to the site will be taken from the Baile \u00c9amonn local road branching north from the R336 coast road. There would be additional pedestrian access linking to the An Ceardlann craft village\u00a0 at the western perimeter. The greenfield site is located north-east of An Ceardlann.<\/p>\n
The location of the proposed discount foodstore is primarily zoned \u2018village centre\u2019 with a portion of the site zoned as \u2018open space, recreation and amenity\u2019.<\/p>\n
The development forms part of a larger development of the lands, including a primary care centre, hotel and residential development.<\/p>\n
There were a significant number of submissions at the planning stage of the development, with some local residents saying that there were visual concerns and would dwarf An Ceardlann craft village, which is a major tourist attraction in An Spid\u00e9al.<\/p>\n
RGDATA, which represents family owned and independent stores, objected on the basis that the location, scale and format of the proposed development was entirely inappropriate, unsustainable and contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area.<\/p>\n
It was argued that the supermarket was car-based, of excessive scale, and would draw trade from the village centre and damage the retail core and the vitality and viability of An Spid\u00e9al.<\/p>\n
One local resident stated: \u201cThis submission objects to the proposal on a number of grounds. Firstly, the impact on the natural beauty and nature of Spiddal.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpiddal is recognised as a small tourist village in the Ghaeltacht. This will destroy the beauty and magic of An Spid\u00e9al altering the traditional environment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe scale of the proposal adjoining Ceardlann is out of character with the area. It will also create traffic pressures, particularly in the summer months.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are road safety concerns on R336 as a result of increased traffic generated by the proposal. The application site has been left destroyed over the past two years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe proposal will negatively impact the entrance to Spiddal and its character. The space should be improved by sustainable development that improves the character of An Spid\u00e9al.\u201d<\/p>\n
A decision on the appeal to An Coimisi\u00fan Plean\u00e1la is due on December 22 next.<\/p>\n
Pictured: The Aldi store proposed for An Spid\u00e9al.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A decision to grant permission for a discount supermarket in An Spid\u00e9al has been appealed to the higher…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49531,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,29297,18,19,17,5],"class_list":{"0":"post-49530","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-connacht-tribune","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}