An Bord Pleanála has overruled the recommendation of one of its planning inspectors and granted planning permission to Tesco Ireland for an out-of-town supermarket near Tullamore, Co Offaly.
By three votes to two, a sub-committee of the board decided to permit the proposed development at Cloncollog, two kilometres from the town centre, even though it rejected plans for a similar scheme on the outskirts of Donegal town last August.
The board said it had taken into account a number of factors such as the designation of Tullamore as a "gateway" town in the National Spatial Strategy, the pattern of planned development in the vicinity and the lack of town centre sites of the scale required.
It also had regard to the commercial zoning of the site at Cloncollog, which is located on the Tullamore bypass. The site is owned by Arkencourt Ltd, a company controlled by Mr John Flanagan, who is a Fianna Fáil member of Offaly County Council.
Last December, the county council approved Tesco Ireland's plan to develop a supermarket with a gross retail floor area of 4,269 sq metres (45,950 sq ft) at Cloncollog, but this decision was appealed by RGDATA, the independent retailers' association.
In its ruling, An Bord Pleanála said it considered that the proposed development would "not unduly adversely impact on the vitality and viability of the town centre". One of its 13 conditions requires the provision of a shopper bus service to the site.
Though another condition caps the supermarket's net retail floorspace at 3,000 sq metres (32,292 sq ft) in line with the Retail Planning Guidelines, RGDATA believes that the Tesco scheme could undermine existing shopping facilities in Tullamore.
Its view was shared by the planning inspector who dealt with the case.
Recommending a refusal, he said the supermarket, together with an adjoining proposed retail park and the existing Aldi store, had the potential to undermine the town centre.
His report noted that there was a presumption against out-of-town shopping centres in the Retail Planning Guidelines and said that Tesco had not adequately examined the alternative of redeveloping its existing supermarket in the centre of Tullamore.
Mr Fergal MacCabe, RGDATA's planning consultant, said the reasons for refusing the Donegal scheme were equally applicable to Tullamore.
But Mr Dermot Breen, director of corporate affairs for Tesco, pointed out that both schemes and another planned for an edge-of-town site in Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim, on which an appeal decision is pending, were approved by the relevant local authorities.
"We go to where the opportunity is and where consumer needs are - that's our approach to store development," he said.
"In many cases, the planners want us to locate outside because town centres are jammed and there's no space for more stores or parking."
Mr Breen said Tesco was also developing stores in town centres such as Youghal, Co Cork, but the company could not ignore the fact that towns were increasingly spreading outwards, with more housing, business parks and other facilities located on their periphery.
