Council gives thumbs down to supermarket

DESPITE a warning from the Cork county manager that towns need good shopping facilities to survive, public representatives yesterday voted against granting retail giant Tesco permission to build a supermarket in Charleville.

Ironically, they rubber-stamped a similar application from Tesco for Kanturk, despite some local opposition.

County manager Maurice Moloney said that a retail study of Charleville, undertaken by the local authority, had shown €34 million a year was being lost to the town through locals shopping elsewhere. He said the loss in Kanturk was estimated at €14.4m.