Westmeath County Council has refused planning permission for the construction of a new Lidl store on the Dublin Road in Athlone.
The news was confirmed this past week and is a further setback to the development plans of the European supermarket chain who were previously refused planning permission to construct a store on the west side of Athlone at Baylough, a decision which was rejected by An Bord Pleanala in April.
To be constructed directly across from their existing store, the proposed 'sate-of-the-art' development was 2,494 square metres in size and if realised would have resulted in the recruitment of ten further employees to add to its existing staff number of 35 personnel.
Noting its reasons to refuse planning permission, Westmeath County Council stated that construction of the new supermarket on a prominent site would constitute adhoc, piecemeal development at an out of town location resulting in an increased traffic flow contrary to national and local policy on active travel.
The local authority additionally noted that Lidl had not detailed within their application an alternative location within the core retail area of Athlone for the construction of a new supermarket.
Lidl originally submitted the planning application to Westmeath County Council in April.
