Former Laois filling station could be placed on derelict sites register 

A meeting was told a former filling station could be added to the Council’s derelict site register. 

Fianna Fail Cllr Paschal McEvoy expressed concern about the condition of the former filling station in Stradbally and asked the Council to inspect the site. 

He asked in a motion “that Laois County Council request an update from the owners of the now closed filling station at Main Street Stradbally as to what plans they have for it. It has been closed for a number of years and is starting to look like a derelict site”

“It was a grand filling station there and it just closed overnight and as a result there was no filling station in Stradbally,” Cllr McEvoy told the latest meeting of Portarlington Graiguecullen Municipal District. 

He said there was nowhere for motorists to get fuel in Stradbally at present. 

“There is an opportunity for a filling station in Stradbally,” he said. 

Cllr McEvoy said the former station is in “an abandoned state” which he said was a shame as the Tidy Towns are trying to make the area look well. 

In a written response to his motion, the Town Regeneration Section of Laois County Council stated that:  “The Regeneration Section will open a file on this site and will arrange for an up-to-date site inspection to be carried out. If indicated by the site inspection, we will proceed to serve the relevant notices on the owner(s) and add this site to the Derelict Site register. We will also correspond with the owner(s) and find out their plans for bringing the site back into use. Cllr Paschal McEvoy will be kept updated in relation to this file.”

Cllr McEvoy said there is an application for a filling station in Stradbally and he was hopeful that it would get through the planning process.  

The motion was seconded by Fine Gael Cllr Vivienne Phelan.