Diageo calls for appeals against €200m Newbridge brewery to be dismissed

Gordon Deegan

Diageo’s planned €200 million brewery for a greenfield site outside Newbridge, Co Kildare, "is an extremely important project" for the drinks company that is "subject to significant programme pressures," a planning consultant has said.

Trevor Sadler, managing director of McGill Planning, told An Bord Pleanála on behalf of Diageo that two appeals lodged against the grant of permission should be dismissed, claiming that one is invalid.

The two appeals lodged last month by Athy man John Lynch and Sustainability 2050 potentially stall Diageo’s plan by up to 12 months due to the current backlog of appeals to be dealt with at the appeals board.

However, as part of a 142-page rebuttal submission against the appeals, Mr Sadler said that Diageo looks forward to a favourable decision by An Bord Pleanála “as expeditiously as possible”.

The new brewery for Littleconnell is to provide a major jobs boost to the Kildare area providing up to 1,000 jobs during the 20-month construction period and will lead to the creation of a further 70 jobs when operational.

The new facility, which will operate 24 hours per day 365 days a year, is to brew lagers and ales including Rockshore, Harp, Hop House 13, Smithwick’s, Kilkenny and Carlsberg.

Mr Sadler states that the proposed new brewery is central to Diageo’s corporate plans and with the St James’s Gate facility becoming very restrictive due to its historic city centre location, the new brewery will allow the transfer of lagers and ales to the new facility.

One of the appellants, John Lynch, believes the brewery should instead be built in Athy.

In response, Mr Sadler told the appeals board “there is little merit to many of the grounds appeal made, which in the main stem from the appellant’s conviction that the proposed brewery should be located in Athy not Newbridge”.

Mr Sadler said the justification outlined by Mr Lynch is shown to be either irrelevant to this planning application or stem from a misinterpretation of the impact of the proposal and the site context.

Mr Sadler said the Sustainability 2050 should be declared invalid as the appellant made no submission when the case was before the local authority.

He said Diageo is responding to the contents of the Sustainability 2050 appeal on a without prejudice basis and has asked the appeals board to dismiss the allegations made in the appeal.