Council’s plan for 5,000-home town rejected

Cork County Councils’s grand plan to develop a new town near Blarney has been rejected by An Bord Pleanála.

The planning board refused the project on the grounds that there was insufficient certainty that the proposed Northern Ring Road would be in place, insufficient housing density in the plan, and a lack of coherence and detail in its design.

The Monard blueprint, which dates to 2001, includes plans for 5,000 houses, a railway station, a secondary school, four national schools, and creches.