'Ratrun' - Lidl disagree with Laois request for walkway

Lidl's application for a new supermarket in Laois is just weeks away from a decision.

The applicant has given further information requested by Laois County Council planners, who will give their verdict in mid January 2026.

However Lidl Ireland disagrees with a request for extra walkways, saying one could become a "ratrun".

The business has also dismissed a Kildare based submission arguing against the Mountmellick plan as "designed to undermine the development".

Mountmellick residents are largely in favour of the additional supermarket, so much so that hundreds signed a petition to plead with Lidl to go ahead, after the council placed the decision on hold last July for the trader to respond to submissions. 

However some issues were raised in submissions.

Among them was a request from the Mountmellick Town Team and from the planners, asking for pedestrian walkways from the site, the former Central Garage on Emmett Street, opening to O'Moore Street and Twomey Terrace, to encourage active travel.

Lidl gave its reason for not adding the pathways.

"Introducing a pedestrian route from O’Moore Street or Twomey Terrace would not necessarily be supported by local residents.
"A permeability connection from O’Moore Street... would not serve any specific purpose, being permeability for the sake of permeability, or a form of ‘rat run’. It would not connect attractors at either end, nor would it align with any desire lines.

"It would provide no shortcut to pedestrians (the route around O’Moore Street and Emmett Street being of comparable distance, both routes measuring c. 110 metres to the Lidl store entrance) and the route would be unsupervised and unsurveilled, with poor legibility for pedestrians or cyclists."

They have also upped the number of EV public parking spaces from two to eight, and say there is potential to add another 10 staff EV parking spaces at the back of the shop, if needed.

Lidl say that the future staff carpark and a bicycle shelter will be accessed from O'Moore Street, via a fob and barrier entry.

In response to a submission by Serda Ltd, Lidl says there is "potentially competition related reasons for the objection". 

"In our opinion, this is a baseless strategy to undermine the proposed development. In our opinion, the entire basis of Third Party Submission by Serda Ltd. however has no credibility... and the Planning Authority can and should dismiss such spurious and unsubstantiated points of objection".

Addressing a concern for extra traffic in Mountmellick given the secondary school's proximity, Lidl say that their supermarkets actually help with school traffic as they are used by drivers. They note that recent planning approval of a Lidl in Graiguecullen, which will be next door to a school. 

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Other changes that Lidl propose in response to queries, include a controlled pedestrian crossing on Emmett Street and adjustments to the public realm, footpath and carriageway alignment, responding to TII feedback. They also include a lighting design report,