PLAN TO KNOCK HOTEL & REBUILD FACADE

New plan for La Touche in Greystones

DEVELOPERS of the La Touche Hotel, pictured right, have applied to demolish the building in its entirety, and rebuild a replica of the facade.

The fresh planning seeks permission to build 10 apartments within the retained shell of the building, instead of the previously sought five four-storey houses.

DEVELOPERS of the La Touche Hotel have applied to demolish the building in its entirety, and rebuild a replica of the facade.

The derelict building has been a protected structure, and latterly a protected building within a conservation area.

The fresh planning application followed the submission of a conservation and construction plan for the site.

Cllr Derek Mitchell said that the application had come as a surprise to him. ‘I don’t have confidence they will rebuild it as an exact replica even though they say they will,’ he said.

‘ The La Touche is the jewel in the crown of Victorian Greystones,’ said Greystones man Dec Shaw who has fought the development and plans to object. ‘I do not want to see it go the way of The Woodlands Hotel, Killincarrig Manor (Burnaby golf club), etc, etc. It is all we have left.’

The planning application seeks the removal of the four-storey former main La Touche Hotel building in its entirety and replace it with a replica building with ‘generally identical facades’.fa

The plans include 10 apartments, four of them two-bedroom, anand six of them three-bedroom.

A previous planning application sought five four-bedroom fofour-storey town houses within the retained shell of the bubuilding.