€41m retail project permission appealed
Several local residents and An Taisce have appealed Cork County Council’s decision to give conditional permission for a mixed retail development and linear park behind the Fox and Hounds pub in Ballyvolane.
An Taisce said its appeal is based on what it claims are deficiencies in the developer’s environmental impact statement, its concerns about the project’s impact on the ecology on the Glen River Valley, deficient access arrangements, breaches of the Department of the Environment’s Retail Planning Guidelines 2012, and what it said is the project’s failure to comply with the department’s Smarter Travel Policy.
“Taking the site as a whole, it is accepted that ecological impacts have been reduced to a certain extent by reducing the footprint of the proposed development, and by modifying proposals in relation to the realignment of the river,” An Taisce said.
“However, the proposed development, even as revised, will give rise to a permanent negative impact on an area of high local biodiversity value arising from the removal of an area of wetland habitat.
“It is considered that the measures which have been proposed to compensate for loss of this habitat are not sufficient to offset these impacts.”
The developers, The Ballyvolane Development Company Ltd, had sought permission for the shopping centre and park to be located at the rear of the Fox and Hounds pub and Brookvale Estate, stretching back to the Glen river.
It was to include nine retail units, including one main anchor tenant, believed to be Tesco, and up to 899 car parking spaces.
The company also had to apply to Cork City Council for permission to build an access road through land within its jurisdiction. City Hall planners refused permission last year for the road due to the size and the scale of the retail unit.
Meanwhile, planners in County Hall sought further information on the retail element within its jurisdiction.
When the company scaled back the retail element — including reducing the size of the main anchor unit and the number of car parking spaces to 555 — it lodged a new application in May with Cork City Council for an access road off the Ballyhooly Road. While county planners have given the scaled-back retail project the green light, with certain conditions, a decision by city planners on the access road is due by July 17.
The developers claim the project could create up to 400 jobs.
An Bord Pleanála hope to have a decision by October.
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