Bid to extend Curraghboy pub approval refused

Roscommon County Council has recently turned down an application to extend the duration of planning permission for a new commercial building, including a licensed premises and incubation units in Curraghboy village, saying that “substantial works” were not carried out during the period.

Back on September 24, 2019, applicant John McDermott secured approval for the development which included a pub with storage, bedroom accommodation at first floor level and incubation units at ground floor level and off street parking.

It followed a devastating fire at McDermott's Bar, Curraghboy, which gutted the premises and an adjoining salon premises at the end of May the previous year.

Since then the Curraghboy pub has been operating from a prefab premises in the village.

In the decision documents on the extension of duration of the planning permission application lodged in November last, Roscommon County Council said in late January that it was “not satisfied" the application fulfils the requirements of Section 42 of the Planning and Development Act, 2000, governing the extension of the planning permission time beyond the five years generally given to rebuild the pub.

Applications to extend the planning permission time for a development under this section must have commenced before the planning approval ran out, or substantial works were carried out before the planning expired.

The project must also be completed within a reasonable time to qualify for an extension of the planning permission duration.

However, the Roscommon planning authority ruled at the end of January that “substantial works were not carried out during the period of the planning permission” and as a result “an extension of the appropriate period” is contrary to the provisions of the Section 42 of the Planning and Development Act.