Council refuses permission for 158-bed hotel beside Kildare Village

Retail park operator and Tesco Ireland had both objected to the plan

Kildare County Council has refused planning permission for controversial plans for a six-storey, 158-bedroom hotel in Kildare town.

Murlyn Capital Investments had sought permission for the hotel on a site at the junction of Nurney Road and Monasterevin Road at Kildare, adjoining the Kildare Village retail park.

The council refused permission for the plan after strong objections were lodged by the operator of Kildare Village and by Tesco Ireland.

Value Retail Dublin Ltd, which operates Kildare Village, told the council the hotel scheme “should be refused”. On behalf of the retail company, RMLA planning consultants said the hotel scheme was 23 metres in height and represented an overbearing and incongruent urban form when compared with the two-storey Kildare Village. The objection contended that the excessive scale, bulk, massing and height was inappropriate for the site.

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Tesco Ireland, which operates a store beside the planned hotel site, also called on the council to refuse planning permission.

In the objection also drawn up by RMLA, it argued that the failure to provide car parking facilities for the planned hotel “will result in an overspill into the surrounding developments including the Tesco and Kildare Village private car parks, which will have a detrimental effect on those existing retail centres”.

Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), which maintains the State’s road system, said a grant of permission would adversely affect the operation and safety of the national road network.

RMLA also said Tesco “had serious concerns regarding pedestrian safety and the potential hazard that the proposed development will have on the existing operations at the Tesco service yard”.

In a separate objection, the Monasterevin Road Residents Association told the council it was “strenuously” objecting to the hotel.

The applicants can now appeal the council refusal to An Bord Pleanála.

Gordon Deegan

Gordon Deegan

Gordon Deegan is a contributor to The Irish Times