Westmeath County Council has recently refused a second Lidl store being set up in Baylough, in Athlone.
The location for the store is located on the site of the current O'Meara's Garage, which would involve the demolition of the existing garage and three adjacent homes and a new vehicle entrance near the Galway Road.
Lack Of Solutions
The council considered that the project would represent an unacceptable development approach given the lack of recommended traffic solutions.
It also found that a second store in the area would “exacerbate traffic congestion” in an area zoned for residential development.
The council said that plans ‘may only be permitted at an appropriate in scale that does not unduly interfere with the predominant residential land use’.
It also considered that the proposed development would present a “poor unintegrated design solution that would result in a negative visual impact on the character and context of the area”.
It said that the proposal is contrary to the design policies outlined in the Athlone Town Development Plan 2014.
Disappointed
As reported by the Westmeath Independent, Lidl released a statement saying that it was “disappointed with the decision”.
“Our intention was to construct a new state-of-the-art store which would offer customers in the Athlone area more choice when it comes to choosing a supermarket,” the statement read.
“We are currently reviewing the decision before deciding on our next steps.”
© 2019 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Aidan O’Sullivan. Click sign-up to subscribe to Checkout.
