Plans for food court at foot of Sugar Loaf denied
WICKLOW County Council have refused a planning application for a new outdoor food court at the base of the Sugar Loaf due to concerns over access and its aesthetic impact on the rural landscape.
Submitted by Michael Fortune in November 2023, the expansive application sought permission to develop three hot food and beverage food trailers, along with a toilet block and secure children’s play area with picnic benches and picnic pods on an unused 0.39ha commercial site in Calary Upper, Kilmacanogue.
The development also included a new entrance in lieu of the existing entrance to the main R755 road, with secure fencing to the site’s perimeter, signage, car and coach parking and gravel surfacing to the parking area.
There have been six historical applications lodged on the site, which was used as a petrol filling station in the 60s and 70s and a small shop in the 1980s, with permission granted for tea rooms in 2007, which didn’t commence, and permission lapsed in 2017, with the site laying unused to date.
Rejecting this latest application, a Wicklow County Council planner noted that the existing road frontage on the R755 is subject to regular flooding, with a member of the local authority’s roads department adding that a new entrance on a regional road was “not desirable”.
“The proposed development would be contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area and would materially contravene the County Development Plan 2022 because it is located on an un-zoned area outside the boundaries of existing settlements and would contravene strategic objectives for the rural area to preserve the amenities, character and scenic value of rural areas and to generally require employment generating development and tourism developments to locate on zoned/ designated land within existing settlements,” the Wicklow County Council planner wrote.
“The development proposal does not depend on the existing local resources in this rural area, does not have a location that needs to be within this rural area, and will not be compatible with the rural area.
“Additionally, the proposed development is located in an area which is designated in The Wicklow County Development Plan 2022 as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and where there are listed prospects and views.
“The proposed development by reason of its layout and design would result in the haphazard development of the site and would form an incongruous and intrusive feature in this landscape,” they added.
“The development would detract from the rural character and scenic amenities of the area and would seriously injure the assault amenities of the area.”
With regard to the lack of detail with respect to the proposals for the disposal and treatment of wastewater onsite and the disposal of surface water, the Wicklow County Council planner noted that the proposed development would be prejudicial to public health and would, therefore, be contrary to proper planning and development of the area.
Citing insufficient information, the planner noted that the info provided to justify the proposed access to the R755, to show the entrance would not be subject to flooding and that the design and layout are in accordance with current standards was inadequate.
“In the absence of this being provided, the proposed development would adversely affect the use of the road by traffic because of the precedent a grant of permission would set for a similar development, which would seriously interfere with free flow and carrying capacity of traffic on the said road, and the development would result in traffic hazard,” the planner concluded.