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RETAIL CHAIN DEALZ has been ordered to close down one of its Dublin stores by the national planning authority.
Last year, the British-owned discount retailer was refused permission to use a unit in Fonthill Retail Park for one of its stores by South Dublin County Council.
The company was already operating a store, employing around 30 people, in the retail park and sought planning permission from the local council to retain the use of the unit that was earmarked for the sale of bulky goods.
Following the planning refusal, Dealz appealed to An Bord Pleanála to overturn the local authority’s decision.
In its appeal, Dealz noted that is has secured over 8,000 signatures from locals in the area that called for the store to be kept open.
However, in a recently published ruling, the national planning authority has decided to uphold the decision of South Dublin council.
In its decision, An Bord Pleanála said the use of the unit for a “shop” would be in breach of planning policy that aims to ensure retail parks are used for the sale of bulky goods.
It added that these policies are in place to protect the “vitality and viability of existing designated town centres and major retail in the vicinity”.
Another appellant to An Bord Pleanála in support of Dealz, made by the owner of the retail park, noted that little consideration is being given to the jobs that are under threat due to the council’s decision.
The appeal lodged by Integrated Development Services Ltd, added that if the planning laws were “strictly” applied in Fonthill Retail Park, the majority of stores in it would have to close.
“It is worth noting that there is no town centre (Liffey Valley is not a town centre) in the vicinity of this retail park and therefore this park has no impact on any town centres,” the landlord added.
Track record
Dealz has rapidly expanded across Ireland since it launched its first two Irish stores in 2011 and the company now has 60 locations in the Republic.
Previous Fora analysis has shown that Dealz has a track record for retrospectively applying for planning permission and over a dozen disputes between the company and county councils have boiled over nationwide.
After opening stores in 15 different counties, the retailer retrospectively applied to county councils to retain aspects of each development that had been included without planning permission.
In another similar case to that in Fonthill, Wexford council ruled that Dealz broke planning laws by opening a store in Clonard Retail Park more than two years ago.
Over the past three years, Dealz has also brought several of these disputes before the national planning body. Nevertheless, Dealz has enjoyed little success in its planning appeals.
Fora contacted Dealz for comment but no response was received by the time this piece was published.
Written by Killian Woods and posted on Fora.ie
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At this stage, we should just copy the Chinese model and shut down all events, flights and travel in and out of Europe for a couple of weeks. It will hurt for a while but need to keep the big picture in mind.
@Nomad: Nope.
It’s already here, clearly. And in reality, there was zero chance of stopping it, as long as trade, commerce and tourism were given priority. So now we just have roll the dice with the health system. As someone with parents in their 80s, one of whom spent Christmas in hospital with the flu, I can tell you it’s going to be a lot more ‘disappointing’ than cancelling the odd parade…
Just cancel all major up coming events, full stop lifes are more important than someone feelings
Call me naive, but the reason for the Ireland Italy game being cancelled, was due to a large influx of Italians potentially from the affected regions arriving here? Well then what about the 30/40 flights a day into ireland from italy carrying plenty of italian passengers? Same situation no?
@Robert Grant: Italy isn’t the only European country with detected cases, should we close down the airports and ports completely?
@Robert Grant: The cases in Italy are in the north and under quarnteen so they are not exactly all off boarding planes to Ireland
@Gavin Conran: ah stop that now…that would make sense
@Gavin Conran: So the planes are empty then??
@Gavin Conran: what I mean is it’s a contradiction to cancel the games and still allow people travel here from affected regions of that country. I’m sure the italians who were going to travel to the game have flights booked so I’m sure they will still come and make a weekend of it and frequent our bars, restaurants and be mixing with plenty of people. It’s just a contradiction in my opinion.
@Gavin Conran: I know some crew working in Bergamo Airport and even though the city is on a lock down, airport is still fully functioning, bringing at least 2 fully loaded planes to Dublin daily
@Robert Grant: The cancellation is about 50,000 people being in a confined space, even one person there with the virus could cause a catastrophy.
It was a good call to cancel the match
@Dave vickers: They answered Ireland’s call.
All them multinational tech companies having People come and go from all over the world. What could possibly go wrong? I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s here already and HSE won’t release the news. As simple Simon says Ireland should expect ” a very big increase” in suspected corona virus cases in the next few week’s
@Stevo The Man On A Mission them dirty foreigners coming over here infectioning us with their dirty foreigner germs….
Get a grip their Stevo – it’s right to be cautious, but it’s wrong to get hysterical
@Dave Harris: ehhh what ?
@Stevo The Man On A Mission Returns: You should go on off to bed, lock your doors and just shrivel away.
@Ian Breathnach: It’s a completely anonymous account and makes outrageous statements. It has little courage. You should ignore it.
@Stevo The Man On A Mission Returns: they tuk err jerbbs
We’ve a lad here in this factory who returned yesterday from a skiing holiday in northern Italy. Our employer said dey got info saying hes fine so long as he doesnt show symptoms. I asked why are we relying on info from the most inept organisation in the country to keep us healthy
Probably a good thing they cancelled the Rugby match
Apparently the Clayton hotel in Dublin has just been closed off and men in hazmat suits seen entering. Could be precautionary, seen on Twitter
@Declan Edward: the jacks probably over flowed
@Declan Edward: there is no clayton Hotel on pearse St.
@OBean.ie: apologies, it’s only what I read earlier
It looks like it was a good call to cancel the match
No one is controlling anything its on the way a nd now its unstoppable
@Braonain Proinseas: What do you think is going to happen? In the space of 3 months the UK has 15 cases 9 of which have fully recovered and the rest still needing treatment or longer stays in hospital. Get some fckin perspective.
Quarantine people arriving into the republic or the virus will spread.
That video of the Clayton was posted over 12 hours ago. It was only for a few seconds and the 1 man didn’t even have anything in his hands, what was he going to check the person out with? More likely some idiot dressed up to try create hysteria. Nothing would surprise me in this town!
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