Coosan Road 44-unit housing project refused permission

Plans for a housing development on the Coosan Road in Athlone have been turned down by Westmeath County Council.

Portmore Trading and Investments Ltd had sought permission for the 44-unit development on lands adjacent to the former An Post Depot, Coosan Road, Clonbrusk.

The application sought permission to construct the 44 residential units comprising six two-bedroom apartments, six three-bedroom duplex maisonettes, 15 three-bedroom houses and 17 four-bedroom houses. The site is to the east of the An Post Depot opposite the Glenatore development.

In a decision last week, Westmeath County Council refused permission for five reasons.

It said that the development would materially contravene the ‘Enterprise and Employment’ zoning objective of the site in the Athlone Town Development Plan 2014-2020 and that a material contravention of the zoning objective was not warranted in this instance as it was considered that future residential development would be better located in those areas specifically zoned for that purpose

It also said the proposed project would provide a substandard form of development for future occupiers in terms of residential amenity and would give rise to an overall poor standard of development that would fail to integrate successfully into the surrounding area.

It cited the design and layout of the proposed development “including inadequate provision of public open and communal amenity space” and “the failure to provide a high-quality urban design for this visually prominent location” and a "piecemeal approach to developing the overall landholding".

In its third reason for refusal, the council also cited "the absence of details submitted which demonstrate that the proposal would not significantly impact on a Natura 2000 Site(s) and would not impact negatively on local biodiversity”.

It also decided that in the absence of satisfactory documentation to the contrary the proposed development would be premature pending the determination on whether there is sufficient capacity in the public water supply and sewerage facilities in the area to serve the proposed development.

Finally, the council said insufficient details had been submitted to fully assess the impacts the proposed development may have on both the N55 road it proposes to access onto, and the nearby N6 interchange.