The elected members of the Claremorris Municipal District this week gave the go ahead for a material contravention to the county development plan for the construction of a major motor service area just past the McWilliam Park Hotel on the Kilcoman Road in the town. The original planning application had included the provision of a 46 bedroom motel as part of the development but that was removed from the plans by the developer. The access to the development will be gained by a new access road.
The zoning for the lands in the application is currently for industrial use, but Mayo County Council's planning section considered it appropriate to rezone the lands for this project, because it is within the town boundaries and it will be at the junction of two national primary roads, the N17 and the N60. The council received 10 submissions in relation to the application when it was published and they stated that they believe they were able to deal with all the issues raise in the submissions process.
The elected members of the Claremorris Municipal District passed a resolution at their monthly meeting to grant the material contravention of the development plan and the issue now goes forward to a full meeting of Mayo County Council for final approval of the contravention.
Independent councillor Richard Finn proposed the passing of the contravention saying: "This is a very welcome project, it will be worth €10 million to the area in the construction phase alone, it will be preparing us for the future for a number of road bypass projects which are due in the near future. This will make Claremorris a hub for traffic stopping off on the whole north to south corridor, the proposal will be something in the lines of the Obama Plaza in the midlands, which has been very successful. It has huge employment opportunities for the area."
