Accusation and counter accusation dominated an Appeals Board hearing into the biggest single development ever planned for Kilkenny city.

Plans to revitalise the railway station site came under searching examination at the An Bord Pleanala hearing where traffic and other problems were discussed over three long days.

Many of the verbal altercations had nothing to do with the actual planning application and this was stated a number of times by the An Bord Pleanala inspector in charge, Mr. Bernard Dee.

In one corner stood partners Chesterbridge Ltd. and Kilkenny County Council who want to develop a new Dunnes Stores as anchor tenant with 40 shops, hotel, bar, restaurants, apartments, leisure and training facilities for local people and a 1,000 space car park on the site.

In the other corner stood the High Street Traders Group who want to stop the development in order to protect the core retail area of the city – High Street. They were backed up by Kilkenny Mart who also want the railway site to fail so they can go ahead with the development of the mart site.

Caught in the middle are the Ossory Park residents who will be the ones most directly affected by the scheme at the railway and Kilkenny Borough Council who adjudicated on the planning application.

The stakes are high. Kilkenny Mart had a senior lawyer present and a number of consultants to back up their claims that they had been discriminated against in their quest to develop their Barrack Street site. Their allegations were contested by Kilkenny County Council.

Cost
Kilkenny Mart will almost certainly have paid more than €50,000 to take part in the appeal process. Kilkenny County Council is a business partner in the railway station site with Chesterbridge Developments and will benefit financially if the site is developed.

The High Street Traders Group represents retailers including Vivian Good and Seamus Costello of Murphy Jewellers. The Paul family, Betty Manning and others also had a consultant present to explain why they think the railway station site shouldn’t be developed in its present manner.

Their consultant will have angered John Street shopkeepers by saying that John Street was doing okay and had no need for rejuvenation. However, the greatest question arose when a consultant for Kilkenny Mart said that he had been employed by Tesco and had advised them to “walk away” from the railway station site because of the predominant problem with traffic and access.

Tesco quits
He said he could not remember if he had been retained by the Mart at the time he had given the advice on the railway station to the Mart but thought that he had not.

Chesterbridge said that Tesco dropped plans to come to the proposed centre because the development could not accommodate what they had in mind for the station. The developer denied that access or traffic concerns were not the predominant reason that Tesco broke off negotiations with them.

Council wins
The arrangement between the County Council and Chesterbridge on developing the railway station is a complicated one. The council gave over 4-acres of prime city centre land to Chesterbridge in return for 9% of the rent from the shops. The lease is open ended and there is no date from which it will come into effect.

Revelation
At the hearing, Kilkenny Mart appeared to deliver an important technical blow to Chesterbridge’s plans. This followed the revelation that under the planning guidelines a Department of Environment Area Plan for the site should have been prepared by Kilkenny Borough Council (Corporation) and not by Kilkenny County Council as happened.

The regulations state the plan must be undertaken by the local authority which has jurisdiction over the site, in this case Kilkenny Borough Council. Will this be a stumbling block and how will the An Bord Pleanala inspector view this?

The Mart people who want the railway station development to fail say the plan and the fact that it was drawn up by the County Council and not the Borough Council will have serious implications for Chesterbridge because it will affect their tax status. Under the terms of the government’s last urban renewal scheme, there are massive tax incentives for this area.

However, another serious concern for Chesterbridge is the fact that the tax designation runs out in the middle of 2006. Therefore work carried out on the scheme after 2006 will not qualify for tax relief.

Obstacles
Kilkenny Mart told the hearing that the County Council placed obstacles in its way as it tries to seek planning permission for 12.5-acre mart site. This was denied by the council.

Chesterbridge said they wanted to build a mixed-use urban quarter including a hotel, restaurants, cultural amenities including a museum, bowling alley, community facilities, retail units, residential and office accommodation including socially affordable housing, starter units and a crèche on the 5.05-hectare site.

The €100m scheme planned for completion by 2007 will, they said, provide employment for up to 1,500 people and address the need for increased retail space in Kilkenny to stem the flow of shoppers to other nearby towns and facilities as far away as Dublin. They estimated that the population of Kilkenny city will grow from 20,000 to 30,000 within 16 years.

Representing High Steet Traders, town planning consultant Stephen Dowds said the traders feared that the new development would damage trade in the city centre. Representatives of Kilkenny Borough Council led by Seamus Brennan, solicitor, argued that the traffic flow in the area would be greatly improved by the new road connecting Hebron Road with the Golf Links road and by the construction of the next section of the Ring Road which they expected to go to tender early next year.

Chesterbridge said studies showed that these improvements would reduce traffic from the Castlecomer Road to the Hebron Road roundabout from 17,000 cars per day to 12,000. However, they did not mention what will happen if the proposed inner relief road comes up Wolfe Tone Street and into the junction.

Kilkenny Co-op Livestock Market Ltd. lawyer, Eamonn Galligan, argued that the mart site shoud be considered to meet Kilkenny’s retail needs.

The Ossary Park Residents expressed concerns about the impact on traffic and parking in their area and the impact of noise and duct during the construction period.

Particular concern was expressed on behalf of John Joe and Teresa Hayes whose son is autistic and very sensitive to noise and dust.

Politician and disability campaigner, Kathy Sinnott, highlighted the need for a service for young autistic adults in Kilkenny and said that the family must move as they lived only a hundred metres from the edge of the site.

Mrs Hayes made it clear that her objection was solely for the good of her son and said that she thought that the development would be good for Kilkenny.

Architects also present on behalf of Chesterbridge Developments were Anthony Reddy Associates.