New houses approved beside Portlaoise Hospital

Planning permission has been granted for six new houses on a brownfield site near the Portlaoise Hospital on the Dublin Road.

Portlaoise Service Station Ltd applied for permission for six two storey townhouses that would be accessed by the mini roundabout located at the junction of the Block Road and the Dublin Road in the town. 

The site was formerly used as a filling station but ceased operating in 2006 and has remained a brownfield site in the meantime. 

Since the original filling station was demolished, the site has been the subject of a number of plans but no construction. In 2011 permission was refused for another two storey filling station and shop. In 2012 permission was granted for a single storey version, but this was appealed to An Bord Pleanála who overturned permission. In 2013 permission was granted for a two storey medical centre with pharmacy. This was appealed to An Bord Pleanála who also approved it. However the applicants say it was not built because they were not able to find an anchor tenant.

The newly approved plans include six townhouses, new site boundary, 14 car parking spaces, bicylcle parking, landscaping and alterations to the existing site entrance onto the Dublin Road roundabout in Portlaoise.

Three neighbouring residents had made submissions to Laois County Council outlining their concerns about potential overshadowing, privacy and about the type of boundary which would be put in place. 

In response to the submissions, the developer stated that: “While it would be preferable to further lower the ground level and associated access levels (relative to the existing adjoining properties), we are constrained by the existing road level at the current entrance to the site. We have stepped the floor levels between units two and three, and between units four and five, to accord with the site gradient, from West to East.

We have modified the house design by lowering the roof pitch, which in turn reduces the ridge levels of the proposed development by approx. 600mm. The ridge levels of the proposed development are now below that of the existing dwelling to the East,” they stated. 

Laois County Council has now approved the planning application subject to 17 conditions.