County council approves significant expansion to Pepsi plant in Little Island

PEPSI is expanding its production plant in Cork after Cork County Council gave the green light for the project on Tuesday.

Portfolio Concentrate Solutions UC (Pepsico Ireland) lodged plans for the expansion on December 9, 2022, at its site in Little Island Industrial Estate, Ballytrasna, Little Island, Co Cork.

The plans involve an expansion to the existing production building to provide an additional 3,252 sq m of floor space over four operational levels to a maximum height of 28.1m.

This will include the construction of 200 sq m of new concrete pavement at the south-west corner of the proposed building, and works in relation to 120 sq m of concrete paving at a site entrance on the north-east corner of the proposed building.

The plans entail the decommissioning and demolition of an underground surface water attenuation tank adjacent to the existing food flavours building, which requires the temporary removal and later reinstatement of car-parking space adjacent to the tank.

The development works include landscaping and underground services provisions with an overall site area of 1.07 hectares, including the provision of underground pipe connections to an existing underground tank for surface water management.

Cork County councillor Alan O’Connor of the Green Party submitted that, should planners approve the application, “that it be made a condition of any such grant that all lighting within the site’s curtilage be directed downward and cowled, so as to limit any potential light pollution effect.

“Such light should be temporally managed as well so as to be off when not in use.”

He said that “well-designed lighting of this nature” should not interfere with passing traffic or cause any glare or additional light spill to adjoining properties.

“The harbour area in particular has seen a good deal of development over the last decade and more, with associated light pollution,” he said, adding that light pollution “is a major contributory factor to environmental degradation and is relatively easily managed.

“As such, it is one of the few potential quick fixes in the environmental crisis,” he said.