'Important to keep cracking the whip' on mostly vacant retail area in Tipperary

Owners Remcoll are seeking planning permission for office refurbishment and development at the Market Place retail area in Clonmel, where most of the units are closed and boarded up.

The permission being sought by the company will result in the gross floor area increasing from 1,214 square metres to 2,105 square metres.

The development will include the renovation of blocks one and two, formerly units C1-C6 and D1-D5; the addition of a second floor at roof level to blocks one and two; the construction of a first and second floor extension connecting the two previously separate blocks; and the introduction of a new cladding system to existing facades and roofs.

The plans also include the construction of a new entrance to the development, with associated signage; the addition of solar PV panels; the allocation of 60 car parking spaces; the allocation of 22 cycle spaces, and all associated site works.

It emerged last week that Remcoll had drawn up a masterplan for Market Place.

Following recent discussions with the company, Remcoll intends to apply for planning permission for one part of this masterplan, District Manager Sinead Carr told a meeting of Clonmel Borough District.

District Administrator Carol Creighton said that the drawing up of the masterplan represented progress.

At the same meeting, before the planning permission was lodged, Cllr Pat English said they were “waiting and seeing for a long time” and Remcoll had been “tiptoeing around planning for the last three years”.

Sinead Carr said she agreed, adding that they would be keeping an eye on the situation.

Cllr Siobhán Ambrose said she was very confident that the overall plan for the area would go ahead, even if they had been waiting for some time.

Earlier at the meeting, Cllr Michael Murphy repeated his call first made some months ago that the council should proceed with a CPO (Compulsory Purchase Order) on the site.

A CPO is where statutory bodies, such as councils, can acquire land or property without the owner’s consent and allow a public infrastructure project to go ahead for the common good.

When he heard about the masterplan for the area, Cllr Murphy said it was really important that they continued to keep cracking the whip on this.

SuperValu, the anchor tenant at Market Place, closed eight years ago.

Sinead Carr told the January meeting of the Borough District that she and Joe MacGrath, CEO of Tipperary County Council, had recently held a “very honest and robust discussion” with representatives of Remcoll.