National planning chiefs give green light for major redevelopment of popular Kilkenny garage
A well-known county Kilkenny filling station and shop has been given the green light to undergo a massive facelift.
Carroll’s Centra and Emo Oil in Ricelands, Knocktopher, was originally granted planning permission by Kilkenny County Council in March to redevelop its shop and forecourt. Under the plans, the existing shop would be completely demolished.
This decision was appealed to An Bord Pleanála by some residents in the Knocktopher area on a number of grounds. These related to the retail and visual impact of the development to the area, the traffic impact on the area due to having a much larger development and the impact on residents.
After taking the appeals into account and visting the site for examination in July An Bord Pleanála decided to grant planning to owner Padraic Carroll.
Mr Carroll can now proceed with his plans to build a new supermarket building comprising of convenience shop and off-license, store areas, staff facilities, public toilets and an internal seating area. Two new commercial units will also be constructed as part of the plans.
The new development will also see the construction of a new canopy over the fuel pumps, alterations to the layout of the fuel pumps/islands with an additional fuel pump, a new heavy goods vehicle fuel pump, a new automatic roller car wash, a realignment of the boundary and vehicular entrance to the existing hotel car park and the creation of a new exit lane onto the public road at Whitecastle Lower.
