*The Clare Rd Junction where the Lidl store will be located. Photograph: Páraic McMahon
LIDL has won an appeal to An Bord Pleanála to enable a €20m development in Ennis to proceed.
German retail giant Lidl has won a seven year battle and it can now work ahead with plans for a new store, twenty apartments, playground, café and two retail units at the junction of the Clare Rd and Tobarteascáin.
Thirty permanent jobs are expected to be created on what was formerly the site of Michael Lynch Construction Ltd with a further 100 jobs in the construction phase. The Retail Grocery Daily Allied Trades Association (RGDATA) had objected to the development as it felt that smaller shops in the town would not be able to survive.
Plans to develop the site were first lodged by Lidl in 2018 but the application was refused. The revised application was first submitted to Clare County Council in January 2022. The Council granted conditional planning permission to the site that year but the development was stalled by objections from local retailers as well as residents.
Local resident Michael Brennan objected to the development as he felt it was an “outrageous idea to have a major entrance to such a large retail unit so close to and right in front of someone’s private residence”. Mr Brennan said that he had “serious safety concerns and objections over the proposed junction, entrance or turn off into Lidl being located almost directly across from my front gate. The current plans would all but deny me the ability to make a right turn, therefore preventing me clear and free access to the Clare Rd. It would be a major infringement on the ease of access to my home on a daily basis”. The Ennis man also raised concerns over the potential increase in traffic volume as well as a loss of habitat at the vacant site.
Paul and Kay Ryan of Ryan’s Centra, Clonroadmore, opposed the development due to the impact it would have on other businesses in the area. They objected on the grounds that the development would “seriously impact on the vitality and vibrancy of the town centre and would constitute an unsuitable form of development which would be principally dependent on car-based transport”. The couple also raised the issue of increasing traffic congestion and referenced “peak times” at St. Flannan’s College as a contributing factor to their objection.
The RGDATA issued a twelve-page document in response to the plans. They claimed that the proposed development would serve a much wider catchment area than its site designation allowed. The vacant site had been earmarked as a ‘neighbourhood centre’ but the RGDATA argued that the site’s location on the Limerick road would lead to it experiencing a disproportionate amount of customers. The association also deemed that the net floor space was too large and questioned the absence of a noise impact assessment in the application.
They stated that “the proposed scheme will draw a much wider customer base and will therefore result in a much greater retail impact on the surviving shops operating in the town centre. Moreover, the proposed development would constitute a significant intensification of retail provision in this area to a degree that would be contrary to the neighbourhood centre designation”.
Planning was granted by An Bord Pleanála subject to twenty eight conditions, they include a revised car parking layout, a relocation of the playground to a more central position within a larger civic area. The ruling determined the development if it adhered to the conditions “would not unduly affect the viability and vitality of Ennis town centre, would not seriously injure the residential amenities of future occupants in the scheme or of property in the vicinity and would be acceptable in terms of flood risk, traffic safety and convenience”.
Although Lidl didn’t appeal a condition of planning seeking €51,00 for the provision of an additional footpath and further traffic calming works on the L436 Tobearteascáin Road to the east of the site, the inspector recommended the contribution be reduced to €19,000 to include only additional traffic calming measures.
