Hotel opponents step up campaign

OPPONENTS of a planned five-storey hotel in Cashel on a site previously earmarked for a town park are holding a public meeting tonight in a bid to step up their campaign.

The deadline for appeals to An Bord Pleanála against the local council’s decision to grant planning permission for the 83-bedroom hotel is February 28 and members of the Save Our Town Park group want as many residents as possible to sign up to their objection.

CMS Developments was given the go-ahead two weeks ago to build a hotel and commercial development at the 2.8-acre site previously owned by the Presentation Sisters. The site is already the subject of controversy after the council purchased it from the nuns in 2001 for €418,000 amid suggestions of a Compulsory Purchase Order and sold it five years later to CMS Developments for €1.9 million. The latter sale is subject to planning permission for a hotel.