Riverside hotel and housing plan refused

CONTROVERSIAL plans for a 100-bedroom hotel and 66 houses in Co Cork have been turned down, but Marymount Hospice has received permission to build a 129-bed hospital.

An Bord Pleanála yesterday turned down an application by Lawton Homes for the hotel and housing project on the banks of the River Blackwater, in Fermoy.

Permission was initially refused by Fermoy town council, following a debate that bitterly divided opinion in the town. Objectors claimed the development was improper as it would use the last piece of amenity land left in the town centre and because it was situated on a floodplain.