Diageo says two appeals against its planned Newbridge brewery should be dismissed

Diageo’s planned €200 million brewery for a greenfield site outside Newbridge, Co Kildare, “is an extremely important project for Diageo that is also subject to significant programme pressures”. That is according to the MD of McGill Planning, Trevor Sadler, who has told An Bord Pleanála on behalf of Diageo that two appeals lodged against the grant of permission should be dismissed, claiming that one is invalid.

The two appeals lodged last month by Athy man John Lynch and by Sustainability 2050, which describes itself as an environmental NGO and is based out of Kells, Co Meath, could potentially stall Diageo’s plan by up to 12 months due to the current backlog at the appeals board. However, as part of a 142-page rebuttal submission against the appeals, Mr Sadler said that Diageo looks forward to a favourable decision by An Bord Pleanála “as expeditiously as possible”.

The new brewery for Littleconnell would to provide a major jobs boost to the Kildare area, providing up to 1,000 jobs during the 20-month construction period and would lead to the creation of a further 70 jobs when operational.

The new facility, which would operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, is to brew lagers and ales including Rockshore, Harp, Hop House 13, Smithwick’s, Kilkenny and Carlsberg.

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Mr Sadler said the proposed new brewery was central to Diageo’s corporate plans and with the St James’s Gate facility becoming very restrictive due to its historic city centre location, the new brewery would allow the transfer of lagers and ales to the new facility.

One of the appellant, John Lynch, of Cloney, Athy, believes that the brewery should instead be built in Athy. In response Mr Sadler has told the appeals board “there is little merit to many of the grounds the appeal made, which in the main stem from the appellant’s conviction that the proposed brewery should be located in Athy not Newbridge”.

Mr Sadler said the justification outlined by Mr Lynch was either irrelevant to this planning application or stems from a misinterpretation of the impact of the proposal and the site context.

He said the Sustainability 2050 appeal should be declared invalid as the appellant made no submission when the case was before the local authority. Diageo was responding to the contents of the Sustainability 2050 appeal on a without prejudice basis and has asked the appeals board to dismiss the allegations made in the appeal.

Mr Sadler said the new brewery was “a best in class” design, and would incorporate the most up to date and sustainable technology.