Mr.Price seeking retention for Athlone shop for second time

A new retention planning application has been lodged by Corajio, trading as Mr.Price, seeking approval for a shop on the site of its distribution centre in Cornamaddy, more than a year after a previous application was unsuccessful.

The firm is arguing in a legal report in the planning file that one of the reasons cited by the council in the previous decision was “flawed and incorrect” with “no evidence of unauthorised development/use at building 2 as alleged by the planning authority”.

Back in February of 2021, the discount retailer failed to get the backing of Westmeath County Council to retain the change of use of a former wholesalers/warehouse building to a shop in Cornamaddy, with its out of town location, impact on the retail core, the precedent it would set and risk to traffic safety cited as four of the major stumbling blocks.

One reason given for refusing the plan in 2021 said: “Having regard to the planning register records associated with this site and the nature of use undertaken on the subject site in its entirety, it is considered that to permit the development as proposed would, if permitted consolidate and intensify an existing unauthorised use/development" and would set a precedent for similar developments of this type in the future.

In the initial retention application last year, the council also said that to allow significant convenience retailing at this out of town location would constitute “ad-hoc, piecemeal development of a scale and type” that would adversely impact the centre of the town.

On March 11 last, the company lodged a new retention planning application with the local authority, seeking the green light to change the use of a former wholesalers/warehouse building to the use as a shop including ancillary staff offices, canteen, and changes to the external finish of the building.

Mr.Price is maintaining in the planning documents that the records associated with the site from 1971 confirm the original planning permission for the factory remains unchanged and that the use of the factory includes use for deliveries by heavy vehicles, collection of finished product for distribution in Ireland and throughout Europe by heavy vehicles and use by staff of Irish Cable and Wire/Nexans.

The legal report in the planning file goes on to say that a study conducted by TPS Michael Moran confirms that “intensification of the site has not occurred” and is “unlikely to occur as a result of the current Mr.Price operation”.

It also claims that the “traffic to and from the site” has actually reduced, while in another traffic report, it concludes that there are “negligible” daily and hourly trips associated with the existing retail unit, which is in operation since December, 2019, and it has “no traffic impact” on the adjacent road network.

“The retail unit only occupies 15% of the total floor area and is very much ancillary to the main purpose and function of the site as a national warehouse and distribution centre serving Mr.Price branded retail units throughout the country,” a retail impact report produced in support of the application adds.

It went on to say the importance of having the retail unit beside the company's national logistics hub “cannot be overstated” because it is key to facilitating expansion of the company's online store.

“The retail unit effectively functions as a picking station for all online sales for the company,” the report says, and a study has shown it is “small scale in nature and will not have any adverse retail impacts” because of its localised nature.

Retention permission is usually only applied for when construction of or alteration to a building has already taken place without planning permission. An individual or developer applies to have the work approved retrospectively.

Westmeath County Council is due to give a decision on the new application by May 5 next.