Plans for new Tullamore SuperValu put on hold

A planning application for a new neighbourhood centre on Collins Lane in Tullamore, incorporating a 2,100 sq.m SuperValu supermarket, has been placed on hold by Offaly County Council pending the receipt of further information.

Council planners have sought changes to a number of aspects of the plan, including the possibility of reducing the road width to provide for traffic calming at the entrance to the development and have also questioned the accommodation of cycle and pedestrian access to the site and the height of the proposed 1.8m weldmesh fence around the site.

They have also asked the applicants, Cedarglade Ltd., to submit proposals for the permanent seating in both the plaza area and adjoining the supermarket and litter bins, and to submit a revised landscape architect design report and landscape masterplan indicating creeper planting on the public facing side of the “marshalling yard walls.”

The planning application attracted one submission from a company called Grapemont Limited, whose director is Tullamore-based businessman, Tony Flanagan, and the council has asked the applicants to give their observations on this submission.

The applicants, Cedarglade Ltd., with an address at Musgrave House in Cork, have sought planning permission for a 2,100 sq m supermarket, a 240 sq m cafe with outside seating, a 110 sq m pharmacy, a 78 sq m shop,

135 car parking spaces and 26 bicycle spaces on lands at Collins Lane which are owned by Golden Vale Co-op Mart Limited.

Cedarglade Ltd, is a subsidiary of Musgraves, which is the company behind the SuperValu and Centra brands.

The site of the proposed development is located 2km north of Tullamore town centre, and in close proximity to the Jehovah Witness Kingdom Hall, the Educate Together primary school and the recently-completed Hawthorns housing development.

In their request for further information, Offaly County Council have asked the applicants to examine whether it is “feasible to reduce the carriageway width” from the proposed 6.5m in order to provide for traffic calming at the entry to the development.

They also said the proposed footpath and cycle lane “should be shown to tie in to a redesigned roundabout” in order to accommodate cycle and pedestrian access to the site “in accordance with the Cycle Design Manual.”

The council have also requested that the cycle lane and footpath should both be 2.0m in width, segregated vertically and should “tie in to the existing protected junction and the development to the east.”

The applicants have been given a period of six months to submit the further information requested by the council.