Laois village gets green light for café in thatched cottage

A small Laois village with no shop but a huge community spirit has been given approval to open a café in a thatched cottage.

Camross at the foothills of the Slieve Bloom Mountains recently got a huge grant of of over €250,000 towards the project from the EU Just Transition Fund.

Now it has the green light from the planners in Laois County Council.

The committee had advertised recently for a café manager for Poet's Cottage.

The Camross Heritage CLG has requested permission for the café to be located in the Poet's Cottage at the heart of the community, a replica Irish cottage built by a local FÁS scheme in the 1990s.

Permission is granted for a change of use of an existing heritage office to a community café. The works will include the demolition of existing fabric and internal alterations. New external doors, windows, and external awnings are planned alongside some external landscaping work.

Retention Permission was also given for the position of the existing front door and adjacent window.

Making their decision, the planners noted that "the cottage remains in excellent repair, making it an ideal candidate for reuse. The addition of a café has the potential to enhance the village’s vitality".

The plan for the community cafe and the funding attracted is the latest significant development and investment in Camross in recent years. The Camross Community Complex has a wide range of facilities including a multipurpose sports pitch, community garden, riverside outdoor classroom, floodlit walkway, seating area, multipurpose hub and gym. The village also has a pub, church, primary school and playschool.