Supermarket planning appeal pushed out to July

An appeal against the refused planning permission for a new supermarket in the county is now hoped to be decided by mid July.

In December 2023, Roscommon County Council’s decision to refuse planning permission for a new supermarket in Monksland, South Roscommon was appealed to An Bord Pleanála. The council refused permission on November 21st saying it would be “contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area”. The developers lodged the appeal on December 15th.

The case was due to be decided by An Bord Pleanála by yesterday, April 29th 2024, however, there is a considerable backlog of cases before the board. On ABP’s website the development is described as “construction of a supermarket with off licence and signage, revision to entrance with all associated site works”.

When contacted by the Herald, a spokesperson for ABP said the case is with the inspector and the completion of their report and recommendation to the Board is awaited.

“As soon as the inspector’s report is received the file will go to the board for its consideration and decision,” the spokesperson said. “The Board now intends to determine the above appeal before July 19th.” On September 27th 2023, Roscommon County Council received a planning application from MCS River Village Limited for a single storey supermarket with an ancillary off-licence sales area in Monksland South Roscommon.

The development was proposed for a greenfield site of .914ha on lands to the south of a T-junction on the R362 and immediately south of the Joe Duffy car showroom.

The proposal received by the council had a gross floor area of 2,210 square metres, with a net sales area of around 1,425 square metres.

The development proposal included 127 parking spaces, featuring four electric vehicle charging spaces, six parent and child spaces, and four accessible spaces. Additionally, 23 spaces were to be pre-wired for future electric vehicle charging.