Council to decide next month on plan for Monksland Lidl store

Roscommon County Council is due to make its decision next month on whether to approve the latest planning bid for a Lidl supermarket in the Monksland area of Athlone.

On Wednesday last, May 27, Lidl Ireland lodged a planning application for the new single-storey discount supermarket and off licence, which would be located on a 1.2 hectare site immediately south of the Joe Duffy car sales showroom, and across the road from the Athlone Springs Hotel.

The proposed supermarket would have a gross floor area of 2,358 square metres, with the development also including two smaller units, a café/restaurant and another retail unit, along with "plaza areas" between the Lidl store and the café/restaurant.

Public submissions or observations on the planning bid can be made until June 30, with the council due to decide on it by July 21.

The application comes after a previous proposal for a Lidl store at the same location was turned down by the council in late 2023, with An Bord Pleanála upholding that planning refusal in July 2024.

In the new planning application, Lidl Ireland argues that significant improvements have been made to the design and layout of the proposed development, when compared with the previous plans, and that the new proposal deserves to be looked upon favourably as as a result.

The planning application noted that residents in Monksland are currently travelling to "other large retailers like Dunnes Stores, Tesco and the discounters Aldi and Lidl, all located to the east of Shannon," and that, if approved, the Lidl store would "claw some of that trade back to the local area".

* For more on this story, see next week's Westmeath Independent.