Decision time on new Laois Lidl in Mountmellick

The decision is about to be announced on a new Lidl supermarket in Laois.

However Lidl Ireland GmbH is sticking to its guns in refusing to add what it had termed 'ratrun' paths from the site of the planned new store in Mountmellick.

The supermarket will replace a derelict Nissan garage and vacant row of houses on the N80 main street through the town, at Emmett Street.  It is expected to create 25 Laois jobs and add €1 million per year to the local economy. 

Planners are due to make their decision by Tuesday, April 7, following nine months of delays. 

Some of that delay is down to a request by Laois County Council planners to reconsider Lidl's decision not to add pedestrian/cycleways to O'Moore Street and Twomey Terrace. The paths were first requested by the Mountmellick Town Team, to align with the council's active travel targets.

Lidl's latest response of a Further Information statement states that they met the Mountmellick Town Team and liaised with the active travel, roads and planning departments of Laois County Council.

"Opportunities for the creation of a physical link between the subject site and O’Moore Street have been examined, and exhausted. Ultimately, the only conceivable link would be a circuitous and unsurveilled route around the proposed Foodstore. Such a route would be a poor expression of pedestrian permeability, and would not achieve any practical purpose, including that it would not provide a shortcut nor would it match any identifiable desire line.

They say there is a "consensus that it would not be in the interests of the proper planning and sustainable development of the area to provide such a link".

"Similarly, in relation to Twomey Terrace, it is not proposed to provide a link to same, given the absence of a desire line, or any particular purpose for same".

They also say that their suggested location for a bus stop was rejected by the council, so no bus stop is included. 

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If approved, the supermarket will be largely welcomed by the Mountmellick community, with a local petition signed by hundreds of people in favour of the development. With a population of some 5,000 people, the town has a SuperValu on its opposite Eastern side, and a small Londis supermarket nearby on O'Moore Street.

If approved, work could take over a year, starting with demolition.  A new Lidl supermarket got the green light for Graiguecullen on the Laois Carlow border last July and it is now due to be open this summer.