Oral hearing on controversial retail plan

The planning application by former Mayor of Galway Micheal O hUiginn (FF) has received objections from residents’ groups in Rahoon Road, Highfield Park, and Maunsells Road and Park, as well as bodies which represent small retailers and city centre traders.

British supermarket giants Tesco are expected to become the main anchor tenants at the development on the site of the former O hUiginn timberyard on the Rahoon Road.

An Bord Pleanála, the planning appeals board, confirmed this week that the application is scheduled to go to a full oral hearing, set to take place at a city venue sometime within the next two months.

 Permission was granted for the 9,369 square metre development by Galway City Council in June, but with a stipulation that the developer would have to build a €3.5 million public road through the 6.5 acre site from the Seamus Quirke Road.

The local authority’s scaling back of the size of the supermarket, by one tenth, and the planned roadway through the site ensured that the retailer’s initial ‘agreement in principle’ with Mr O hUiginn had become invalid.

Mr O hUiginn described the new public road, a condition laid down by the City Council, as the biggest stumbling block to the project and was expected to appeal this condition to An Bord Pleanála. But he said there was bound to be interest in the site, even if Tesco withdrew from the initial deal.

 Residents from Rahoon Road, Highfield Park, and Maunsells Road and Park, joined together to lodge an appeal with An Bord Pleanála in relation to the planning permission, with the Rahoon Road Residents’ Association acting on behalf of the two neighbouring bodies.

“We would welcome the decision to go to a full oral hearing as a vindication of the concerns of local residents,” said Ronan MacGearailt, a spokesman for the Highfield Park Residents’ Association, yesterday.

“The oral hearing will give us an opportunity to tease out our concerns in terms of the negative impact this development would have on traffic in the area, residential amenities, and existing businesses in the Westside. The three residents’ groups are bringing this appeal together.”

Mr O hUiginn said yesterday that he was “very surprised” to see the planning application go to a full oral hearing, given the considerable volume of documentation already in the possession of the appeals board in relation to the project.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.