Plans for hotel, office and retail development in Cork town labelled 'premature'

Plans to redevelop a hotel and leisure centre in a Cork town have been shot down by Cork City Council’s planning department.

Irish Conference and Leisure Holdings Limited had sought approval for a mixed-use development on the site of the former Blarney Park Hotel and Leisure Centre, on St Ann’s Road, Monacnapa, Blarney.

An 80-bedroom hotel, a licensed supermarket, a café, an office building, and a commercial building over an extensive 16,780 sq m made up parts of the proposals.

The hotel was proposed to range between three and four storeys in height, and would have included a fitness facility and a rooftop garden, among other features.

However, City Hall has refused permission on a number of grounds for the development.

Planners said in their decision that the design, scale and massing of the plans would be “visually dominant and out of character with the pattern of existing development in Blarney”.

They also point to the site being visible from the Blarney Castle Estate, and say these proposals “would be obtrusive” when viewed from there.

The planning department also feels the site isn’t suitable for a supermarket of that scale, while the proposal for retail units is considered “premature” given high levels of vacancy in Blarney Town Centre.

They also highlight the “deficient capacity of the local road network” as an issue, and add that the public's safety would also be endangered due to the “serious pedestrian and vehicular conflict which it would generate on the adjoining road”.