It has been confirmed this week that the green light has now been given to proceed with submitted building plans for yet another supermarket, to be erected by Baycross Developments Ltd on the site of the old Erin Foods Factory.
Thurles Town Council had attached nineteen extra conditions to the original plans submitted, which related mainly to the size of the property and the required modifications to road and access routes.
It is understood that some 30 individuals, mainly representing local business have made submissions opposing the development and these may be now further appealed to An Bord Pleanála.
The supermarket complex, (6,709 sqm) if erected would include a fast food drive-through restaurant, two ESB substations, vehicular and pedestrian access, a cycle track, the provision of two roundabouts and other associated works along the N62 route.
The decision to close the Erin Foods Factory came about after a group-wide review by the then parent company, Premier Foods, in November 2007, to consolidate the manufacturing of a number of its key brands. The plant closed the following June with the loss of 95 jobs.
Over a period spanning some 15 years to date, Thurles has lost some 1,500 jobs due to factory closures, and none of those jobs have been replaced.
With regard to business in the Thurles town centre, many fear that this new complex will now destroy the character and commercial activity once so vibrant in the town.
Tesco are more than likely anchoring it. They put in a recent application for a few warehouses in the Clongower site for the home shopping/delivery.
The drive tru restaurant isn’t going ahead as it was deemed an unsuitable location for it which judging from the layout on the plans it wasn’t a great layout.
Best place to put a McDonald’s/Burgerking type restaurant would be the Square but would like to see one opening in Friar street as that street could really benefit having a few national/international retail/restaurant chains on it.
The former Hallmark card shop beside Long’s, a Subway sandwich bar is opening there soon.
We’re all presuming that Tescos is the supermarket that will be going into this complex. If the original old Tescos down the town closed, the only business I could think that should go in there to replace that would be a Penneys! As this creates a revenue due to is inexpensive clothing, that in turn will bring the consumer back into Liberty Square, and if one major High Street Store opened, it will grow the want for more, eg, New Look, Awear, etc,
Am I missing the point here?, would I be forgiven for suggesting that Chris and Caroline who posted replies to this article are somehow directly or indirectly involved in this venture?
Has it not been obvious from recent and past public consultations regarding multiple chain stores locating in Thurles town that the opposition has largely been based on concerns surrounding the obliteration of small local shops by their inability to compete on a level playing field with multi national chain stores?
Why then are Chris and Caroline (with respect) completely ignoring these concerns and harping on about how wonderful it would be if Thurles had more fast food restaurants and chain stores? I mean, what is so great about having a Penney’s? Aweare? Next? Booths? etc etc….
Citizens in many towns and cities across the pond in the UK are now and have been for some time attempting to reverse this process of complete saturation of their urban centres with large multiples. Every town and city centre with the exception of a few mega metropolis’ like London and Manchester look the very same now over there.
You will find a Booths, an Aldi, a Lidl, Pennys, Tesco, Asda, Next, A-wear, Top Man, McDonalds, Burger King, Holland & Barrett etc etc. It is like each town and city is some kind of clone of the other. The multiples have an effective monopoly on consumer spending and the vast majority of the products (especially clothing, Caroline) originate from China and sweat shops in India where workers have no rights and work for a pittance;
(Is that how Penney’s manage to sell clothing so cheaply?, remember we lost an excellent Irish shirt factory ‘Sabel’ recently in Thurles due to cheap imports and chain stores undercutting home industry).
I am not anti development or regeneration. I am delighted that something has been found for the old Erin Foods site, but I am troubled by the short sightedness and skewed reasoning of many in relation to what is actually good for Thurles town in the long term.
Chris, that is a novel way of spelling Clongour a sort of Anglicisation I suppose.
Clongower is the proper name Prionsias. You make a good point concerning the English cloned towns.
Clongower is an area south of Clongour. Don’t believe it ask Thurles TC planning. I also leased land there so I should know the name of the area. Thurles is now the second largest town in North Tipperary. Nenagh is getting a much better high street than us now, the unemployment rate is much lower and businesses there are doing quite well. Towns like Cashel and Tipperary town are even catching up to us. Thurles high street is dying and unless we get more retails chains in the Square and Friar street, people will just continue to go shopping in Cashel, Clonmel. I only support this development to get that Tesco store out of the square. It is a unsuitable location for a supermarket and causes a lot of traffic jams in the town. I looked over the recent franchisee Subway planning application in the civic offices, same people as usual with photocopied objections and one of the objectors has some cheek to say it will ruin her business when she herself put The Gate Cafe (a cafe that existed in Thurles for over 30 years) out of business in 2003. This Subway store planned for Thurles the same lady opened a very successful Subway store (won the best Subway store award in the UK and Ireland) in Pearse Street Nenagh in 2005. Back then a lot of retail units where empty. Today apart from the old Dunnes stores clothing shop. All these units are full and trading very well. In Thurles most stores in the Square and Baker Street only last on avg 6 months. Just proves to you that without a national/international high street nobody will bother shopping on it.
I would love to hear what shops in the town centre that you think will be affected by Penney’s, Awear and Next coming to the town? The Bookmakers, or the few little Boutique clothes shops that mostly an elderly clientèle shop in anyway and only employ one or two staff at a time?
The fact is these new shops coming to the town are stores that people leave the town to shop in anyway. Kilkenny, Clonmel, Limerick etc. The town as a whole is dying and anything that keeps work and money here can only be seen as a good thing.