The community of Boyle was left reeling this week in the wake of another planning setback. On Friday An Bord Pleanala refused planning permission for a 120 bed hotel in the Doon area.
The plans by AOL Development Ltd. to develop a 120 luxury spa hotel were given the go ahead by Roscommon County Council in July last year. The developers secured permission to construct a 120-bed spa hotel on a 29-acre site close to Lough Key to include a leisure and spa suite and treatment rooms.
Albert Looby, Joe Bruen and Colman Lynch, who are behind the local development company, AOL Development Ltd, anticipated a spend of between €20 and €30 million on the luxury hotel development.
The plans, however, were met with objections from a local residents group, Residents of Rock of Doon, and from other outside interests, including An Taisce, who appealed the decision to An Bord Pleanala last August. Following a protracted period of deferrals by the Bord, it issued a decision to refuse permission for the development on Friday last, April 27th.
The Bord refused planning permission on the grounds that it would “seriously injure the visual amenities of the area” and would pose a threat to a number of protected species and habitats.
The Bord outlined in its reasons and considerations for refusal that the proposed development was located in a “visually sensitive unspoiled wooded shoreline setting within the Lough Key Study Area”.
It pointed out that the site was designated as an “area of high amenity value” in the current Roscommon County Development Plan and Lough Key Study Area, both of which “seek to ensure that such areas are carefully managed so as not to have a significant impact on the landscape”.
The Bord went on to explain that it felt that the design of the hotel was “inappropriate”, would be visually obtrusive and impact on the architectural heritage of national monuments in the area.
“It is considered that the proposed four/five-storey hotel and ancillary facilities proximate to the lakeshore, by reason of its inappropriate design, overall
height, scale and mass, would be a prominent obtrusive feature in the landscape which would be highly visible in views both from the lake and from the adjoining road and would impact on the architectural heritage of national monuments in the vicinity of the site including the Abbey on Trinity Island and Inchmacherin Church on Church Island,” the Bord stated.
“The proposed development would seriously injure the visual amenities of the area and would conflict with the policies of the development plan, which relate to this site,” the Bord outlined.
The decision this week has dealt another blow to confidence in the Boyle area, which has suffered a number of planning setbacks in the past year. Plans for a €150 million tourism development beside Lough Key Forest Park were turned down by the Bord last year and plans to develop a small hotel in the town of Boyle have also recently been appealed.
Maresa Fagan
© Roscommon Herald
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