Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
PLANS FOR A major new retail outlet in east Cork could hinge on a decision of the Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Damien English, who has been urged to reverse a recent decision by Cork County Council that was designed to facilitate a €100m “tourist outlet village”.
The Planning Regulator, Niall Cussen, has issued a recommendation to English to direct Cork County Council to annul the recent variation to the Cork County Development Plan which would allow for the development of a Kildare Village-style centre near Carrigtwohill.
It is the first time that the regulator, whose office was established last year, has used his powers to make a formal recommendation to the minister to direct a local authority to follow his orders.
Under legislation, English has two weeks to decide whether to accept or reject the regulator’s recommendation.
UK property firm, Rioja Estates, announced its plans last November for a tourist outlet village selling heavily discounted leading brands at Killacoyne outside the east Cork village which would create more than 850 jobs and attract 220,000 additional tourists to the region annually.
The company expressed hope that the facility could open by March 2024.
In January, councillors supported by the local authority’s chief executive, Tim Lucey, voted 42-4 to alter the Cork County Development Plan to allow for a major retail outlet to be developed near Carrigtwohill.
Lucey said he and his officials held a strong view that there was retail capacity to accommodate such a centre without it having an adverse impact on other retailers in Cork.
However, Cussen said the recent decision by Cork County Council to go ahead with a change to the Cork County Development Plan 2014 was inconsistent with his own recommendation notified to the council in November that the variation should not be made prior to the preparation by both local authorities in Cork of an updated retail strategy for the Cork region as required under retail planning guidelines.
The amendment allows for the provision of a retail outlet centre on the N25 corridor.
In a letter to English, the regulator said the council’s decision was premature and resulted in a development plan that fails to set out an overall strategy for the proper planning and sustainable development of Cork which represented a breach of the legislation.
Cussen said the existing Metropolitan Cork Joint Retail Strategy contained no policy guidance or direction on the development of retail outlets that were consistent with the central objectives of national retail guidelines.
He pointed out that a retail study which informed the recent variation made by Cork County Council concluded there was only capacity for one such retail outlet in the Cork area.
“The identification of a preferred sub-catchment for one retail type in advance of the joint retail strategy represents a piecemeal rather than strategic approach to planning” said Cussen.
The regulator said it was premature to identify the preferred location for a retail outlet centre in advance of the updated joint retail strategy to be undertaken by the two councils, particularly given there was only capacity for one development of that type.
He also complained that the variation did not have sufficient regard for guidelines on spatial planning and national roads, particularly in relation to issues regarding road safety and traffic capacity linked to developments that were highly dependent on being accessed by cars.
The regulator noted that Transport Infrastructure Ireland had also voiced concerns about the changes made by the council given traffic issues on the N25.
Two other potential locations for a retail outlet centre on the N20 (Cork-Limerick) corridor and N22 (Cork-Killarney) corridor were identified by the council and found to have less impact on traffic but they were not subject to detailed assessment.
Cussen said his office had a statutory duty to evaluate and assess proposed variation to development plans of local authorities in relation to proper planning and sustainable development.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Here we go again. Let’s spend another 100 million assessing other potential sites and still end up with nothing built. As far as I can remember there is also a new set of drawings to be done for the stretch of road around that area at a cost of 1.9 million. This work was already completed 10 years ago. It is the same road nothing has changed but lets keep throwing money at it and t h en decide ahh we won’t bother with the building o f the facility.
@martin hayes: cork does not need a shopping village to sell discounted stuff.
@Dave Barrett: I am 100% agreed with that. My point is there will be millions wasted now on rezoning, objections and whatever other excuse they can come up with to stop the venture. Just build it and build it now.
@martin hayes: The unelected telling the elected.
@martin hayes: Ahh sure, let anybody do anything they want. It doesn’t affect me.
@martin hayes: You’re right. And feck the consequences.
What a load of shite. Over half a million people in the county with good transport links to the proposed development and the company themselves already having completed a feasibility study. Further more the village wont open until mid morning meaning no extra cars at rush hour as they do with there other villages in the UK. They would rather spend millions of tax payers money on fesability studies on a no brainer development than facilitate hundreds of jobs on a workable project.
@Tommy C: so over a half a million people have a sudden need to get Hilfiger at fifty percent discount?
But hey, it’s called a ‘village’ so that’s ok. And the UK company did their own survey. So that’s dandy. And there’s jobs. I mean, once there’s jobs, feck everything else, right?
@Tommy C: jobs? All you do is move the jobs from the city to the new SC and ruin the retail and restaurant sector in the city centre which is already struggling. In granting planning permission I suspect the County Council is being mischievous as they lost a lot of revenue from rates when the city expanded its boundaries
@Kevin50: it’s an entirely different operation Kevin. The issue in the city is rents. The answer is competition not protectionism.
@jamesdecay: hmm . but at some point we have to leave some things to the market of supply and demand – an open economy ? businesses can take the risk ,spend millions on a commercial venture and lose their money if it fails and make the profits if it succeeds ? The history and track record of politicians and planners in ireland being involved in such schemes would not inspire much confidence to be fair….
English won’t like that. Nothing worse than someone pulling out a raft of paperwork you yourself drafted up on planning and spatial strategy and using it to point out the error of your ways.
About the best thing Howlin said before he retired was that the planning authorities in this country don’t plan, they just grant permissions. Very true.
I’m sure the retailers in the area don’t feel the need to have this development. And the rosy figures sound like they’ve been inflated. Let’s hope the planning regulator has more teeth than my grandad.
@jamesdecay: it’s clear you have absolutly no idea about the area. Its fields, nothing but open space with one small village kilometers away in an area of low employment. Do you’re homework
@Tommy C: of course it’s fields. That’s why they can call it a village.
@Tommy C: Small village? 5k people census 2016 with population of over 11k expected in 2022. Low employment area? Seriously. Nothing but open space and fields? Right next to the N25 between the City, little island, Cobh and Midleton. Its a prime area. The way you’re talking its in the middle of nowhere.
@Michael Barry: ya and sure they are all a 20 min walk away for sure. It’s a catchment area not urban or even close. Should just continue heading up to Kildare Village where it’s more workable because nobody objected to it. Perish the thought people from Limerick, Tipp Waterford, kerry, West Cork, North Cork might have a shorter drive for themselves.
Imagine if such clarity of thought was had did the Leo bowl “cough” I mean children’s hospital.
This proposal does nothing for the present villages and towns within East Cork Area + Cork City Northern Suburbs – it’s out of town development specifically designed to suck life out of town centres in complete contradiction of National Retail/Regional Retail Strategy Guidelines.
From a Town Planning perspective it’s wrong and simply unbelievable anyone with a basic understanding of the current retail landscape in Ireland (outside GDA that is) would entertain the idea – the amount of empty retail warehouse units with a 5km radius of this site is alarming !!!
WAKE UP Commercial Rate Payers of CCC and remember these ‘Elected Representatives’ that are attempting to PUSH through this material contravention!!!! Complete waste of public funds and a breach of the Public Sending Code…..
Niall cussen, wants high density housing squashed in on any land along the rail corridor…
@feker: And that’s a bad thing? That’s the exact sort planning we need in Ireland.
Object for the sake of objecting. God forbid something like this went anywhere other than near Dublin. I’m not from Cork but this is a no brainer, just let it happen already
have your say