Mystery of Supermac’s SECOND planning pickle
Fake letters row has echoes of Galway debacle
A MYSTERY over forged planning documents in support of a proposed Supermac’s-owned service station on the M18 in Co. Clare is not the first unusual planning application the company has been linked to.
In 2013, the Irish Mail on Sunday reported that two objectors to a proposed Hillbilly’s restaurant in Galway’s Eyre Square could not be located at the addresses given to the local council – addresses owned by Supermac’s.
This week, the Irish Times reported that at least 14 of 187 supportive submissions to a Supermac’s-backed development near Ennis were false. This number has subsequently increased to 16.
The €10m station, located just off the M18 between Limerick and Galway, would be modelled on the Barack Obama Plaza in Moneygall, which is also owned by Supermac’s founder Pat McDonagh.
Supermac’s this week expressed its horror at the realisation that an expression of local support had included the forged or false submissions. Last night, the fast-food chain called for a Garda investigation into the false documentation.
In the earlier application in Galway, BEB Practical Property Partnerships was granted permission for a Hillbilly’s restaurant in Eyre Square, near a Supermac’s outlet.
Objectors to that application included Mary Kelly and Aishling O’Doherty. Eamon Keogh, of BEB, tried to contact them to arrange a face-to-face meeting. In February 2013, he called to the apartments listed as the women’s addresses, which were within 60m of the proposed restaurant. A letter in the planning file of the Galway City Council shows that at both addresses, people other than the objectors answered the door. Residents confirmed that the supposed objectors did not live there.
A land registry search showed that the objectors’ addresses were registered at the time to Supermac’s founder Pat McDonagh.
This prompted BEB to tell An Bord Pleanála that they were concerned that the appeal by Ms Kelly may have been ‘commercially motivated and/or for anti-competitive reasons’. When asked for comment in June 2013 on any connection between the objectors and Supermac’s, Mr McDonagh said he had ‘no comment to make’.
The Hillbilly’s in Eyre Square opened after much delay, but has subsequently closed.
The MoS this week contacted a dozen people who, according to the planning file at Clare County Council, submitted statements supportive of the M18 development and we were able to speak to five. While several residents did not wish to comment on the issue, one resident, Noel Gormley of Ennis, said he had not registered any support of the scheme to the council. While he does support the plan, he ‘hasn’t been home for the last couple of weeks’. Despite this, Mr Gormley’s name and signature had been sent in a letter to the council.
‘We the undersigned,’ the letter reads, ‘want to offer our full support to Mr Pat McDonagh for his recent submission for a Motorway Service station.’
Some 180 of the supportive letters are written in this same format.
Replying to a query asking whether Supermac’s knows who organised the petition, or whether the person has any connections to the company, a spokesman stated: ‘We do not know the person who collected the signatures. It would appear that whoever organised the petition only realised later that there was a fee payable of €20 for each observation and Supermac’s was contacted and asked if the company would refund that fee. Believing at the time that the submissions would be legitimate, the company agreed to pay the planning authority fee. No money has been paid by the company to date.’
Supermac’s distanced itself ‘completely’ from the action, and last night sought a Garda investigation into ‘fraudulent letters’.
‘It is necessary to establish the source of these letters. Supermac’s does not tolerate correspondence of this nature and will fully support any investigation,’ the chain said.
Asked about the 2013 application, the spokesperson refused to comment, but said that ‘any individual or entity has a right to lodge an observation to a planning application. ‘What distinguishes the present situation… is that in the present application it appears that at least some of the signatures on submissions were forged.’
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