Aldi have appealed Louth County Council’s decision to refuse them planning permission for a new store on the outskirts of Ardee.
The proposed store would be located at The Glebe on a 2.9 acre site beside the closed McCabe’s Toyota Garage.
The proposed land that the store would be built on is bound by the N33 Ardee Link Road to the south and the R171 Tallanstown Road to the west. Access to the supermarket would be from the R171 Tallanstown Road.
Last month the council rejected the supermarket retailer’s plans for a new store in the Mid-Louth town on four counts. They included the fact that the store would be out of the town centre and therefore could have an effect on the “viability and vitality of the town centre of Ardee.”
They also pointed out that the land that was earmarked for the development was zoned for mixed commercial/business use and not retail.
They also had reservations on what impact the entrance to the facility would have on the use of the national road and offer capacity constraints on the Ardee Waste Water Treatment System.
In their response Aldi said they felt they had justified the positioning of the store and that they “demonstrated that the proposed development would have no material impact on the vitality and viability of Ardee town centre.” They furthermore added that there “is a demonstrable need for additional convenience provision in the town.” They also state that the store would support the town by attracting “significant additional retail trade” to Ardee by clawing back trade from nearby towns – also offering “significant spin off benefits to other shops.”
They also said they felt the other issues could be dealt with appropriately, pointing out that they had provided a detailed traffic impact assessment and that the waste water system’s load would only be increased by 0.1% as a result of the store.
Aldi are hoping to build a single storey discount foodstore and off licence at the site. It would have a gross floor area of 1,551 square metres, with a retail area of 1,140 square metres.
The development would also include the erection of two double pole, free standing, double sided internally illuminated signs with a double sided opening hours sign at lower level located adjacent to the proposed vehicular entrance to the site from the R171 and adjacent to the pedestrian entrance from the N33 Ardee Link Road.
There would also be one single sided internally illuminated gable sign on the south west gable, one single sided internally illuminated entrance door sign and two single sided free standing internally illuminated poster display signs.
The proposed development will be served by 90 car parking spaces and 10 bicycle spaces and includes permission for all landscaping, boundary treatment, engineering and site development works.
There is already a Lidl store on the opposite side of Ardee, as well as Lanney’s SuperValu in the town centre. Previous attempts by Tesco to set up a store in Ardee over the years were met with stiff resistance.
There had been six objections to the initial Aldi application from Escadia Limited, Vincent Matthews from Dromin, Padraig Malone of Malone Oil Products Ltd, Tara Buckley of RGDATA in Blackrock, Co Dublin, Tesco Ireland and Hughie O’Neill of O’Neill’s Menswear in Castle Street, Ardee.
