Retail chain The Range has been granted planning permission to build a garden centre at its Manor West store.
The retailer sells home, garden and leisure products in Manor West Shopping Centre since October 2021, in the unit formerly occupied by Debenhams and Roches Stores.
It applied for permission to build a garden centre at the back of the shop.
The Range applied for planning permission to build an external, 705-square-metre garden centre at the back of its store.
470-square-metres of this will be a display area, on part of the site adjacent to McDonald’s, formerly used as an overflow car park.
The application also included the installation of access doors from its internal store area, and boundary fencing to secure the garden centre.
The Range leases the land at Manor West off Kozani Limited of 32 Molesworth Street in Dublin, who authorised the company to develop on its lands.
Kerry County Council requested further information from The Range, including clarity on any future plans for the development of the site on which the garden centre will be built.
Planners considered that the proposal may represent piecemeal development of the area, which it described as undeveloped.
The applicant said the land owner has future plans for the rest of the site, which take account of the proposed garden centre, and which it is not in a position to share for commercial reasons.
The applicant also denied that the garden centre would impact on the area’s ability to cater for overflow parking at Christmas, as the landowner says that particular section of the site is not and has never been allocated for parking of any kind.
Permission was granted subject to four conditions.
