AN BORD Pleanála has refused permission for a five-storey hotel and two commercial buildings in the grounds of St Francis Abbey, Cashel, Co Tipperary, saying the scheme would have an adverse impact on views from the Rock of Cashel.
Cashel Town Council decided to approve the proposal by CMS Developments, c/o Elliot Maguire Landers, Dame Street, Dublin, last February. A number of local people though, including those on a group called the Save Our Town Park Committee, appealed this decision to the board.
The land had been owned by the Presentation Order of nuns who sold the land to the town council believing that it would be used for a town park. The council's decision to instead allow a major commercial development on the site created considerable controversy in the heritage town.
The proposed 83-bedroom hotel was to include a swimming pool and leisure centre while the two commercial buildings, one three storeys and the other four storeys, were to contain offices and ground-floor retail units. Also included was a 145-space car park.
The planning application was originally lodged on December 21st, 2006 - a date that saw a large number of schemes submitted to local authorities throughout the State to meet the deadline to qualify for Government tax incentives for new hotels.
Refusing permission, An Bord Pleanála said the scheme would "seriously injure the amenities of Cashel". The planning board said it took regard of the proposed development's location within the curtilage of protected structures - the ruins of St Francis Abbey - including an orchard and several mature trees.
"It is considered that the design, height and scale of the proposed development, which lacks context in relation to the landscape layout and historic built fabric of, and surrounding, the site, would result in an inappropriate form of development," the board said.
This would "materially and adversely affect the character and setting of the protected structures [and] would detract from the townscape of Cashel, in particular in views from the Rock of Cashel".
It would also "materially contravene" policies to protect its setting.
Referring to the site's location between the town's library and nursing home, the board said the proposed development "would fail to provide" an attractive pedestrian link between Friar Street and Dualla Road and would not complement protected structures in the area.
The board was also "not satisfied on the basis of the information available" that construction of one of the proposed commercial buildings and the adjoining car park "would not injure, or interfere with, the medieval town defences of Cashel".
Accordingly, it considered that the proposed development would be premature, pending the archaeological resolution of this area of the site, and that it "would, therefore, be contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area".
Four appeals were lodged against the scheme, from Michael McCormack, St Theresa's Nursing Home; Richard O'Brien of the Save Our Town Park Committee; Tom Wood, Main Street, Cashel, and Sheila O'Brien, Boscabell, Cashel.