Empty supermarket to be divided into three shops

WEXFORD County Council has granted planning permission to a Carrick-on-Suir-based company to change the use of an unused supermarket building in Clonard Village and sub-divide it into three retail units instead.

The supermarket in Clonard Little was approved by local authority planners in 2005 when developers Cleary and Doyle were originally given permission to construct the urban village but in the intervening years, no user could be found for it, architect Raymund Kelly informed the Council on behalf of the applicants Katepar Ltd.

The company applied for the sub-division and change of use of an existing approved supermarket at ground floor level to three retail units along with general alterations to previously approved office accommodation at first floor level.

The building comprises a large retail unit with offices on the first floor to the rear.

A neighbouring business wrote to the Council, maintaining that there is insufficient car parking in the area to accommodate three shops and an office hub.

The site is zoned ‘neighbourhood centre and mixed use’.

Recommending the granting of permission, however, a senior planning inspector said the proposed alterations to the building are mainly internal and there will be no increase in floor space. He ruled that the proposal to sub-divide the supermarket and reconfigure the office space, was acceptable in principle.

The application was granted subject to conditions which include the stipulation that before work starts, the precise details of signage for the shop fronts would be agreed in writing with the planning authority, in the interest of visual amenity in the area.