Planning u-turn on east Meath centre

A move which would have led to an extension of the large Southgate shopping centre at Colpe Cross in east Meath was turned down after some Meath County Councillors did a planning u-turn. They voted not to support Shannon Homes in its bid to change the zoning of lands it owns at Colpe Cross to a 'district" commercial centre. The change to 'district" was about to be adopted in the new local area plan (LAP) for the south environs of Drogheda. However, Green Party councillor Tom Kelly proposed that the full council endorse the decision of the Meath County Manager to refuse the rezoning. Shannon Homes had submitted an application for the rezoning of lands it owns at Colpe Cross where the Southgate Shopping Centre is located. The company sought the remaining commercial lands upgraded from their status as a 'neighbourhood" centre to 'district" centre, thus allowing it to expand the shopping centre. This concept has already met with stiff opposition from local residents, some of whom say they were unprepared for the scale and size of the existing Southgate centre, never mind an extension. Fort- four submissions on the rezoning had been received by the council, the majority of these opposing any change. The council"s planning department had warned last year that it was concerned about the implications of a rezoning change for traffic and the county retail strategy. The rezoning had been opposed by Fine Gael Cllr Ann Dillon Gallagher and Labour Cllr Eoin Holmes. The issue was originally debated at a meeting of the Slane Electoral Area Council and the majority of the five councilloirs there voted against the county manager"s recommendation not to change the lands" status and were willing to allow the lands to be rezoned. When the plan came before the full Meath County Council meeting last week, Cllr Kelly, one of the area councillors, proposed that the zoning be left as it was. The local area plan for that area of Meath has already stirred some controversy with developer Bill Doyle claiming that he was given insufficient lands for house-building, which was to be used as a platform for the building of a new state-of-the-art stadium for Drogheda United. The local area plan for the district has now been adopted by the council. At the full council meeting, Cllr Kelly said they were over-supplied with retail centres and he believed, having listened to submissions from residents in the area, that it was better to leave the zoning as it was. Cllr Dillon Gallagher welcomed Cllr Kelly"s change of mind on the issue, saying that the consensus in the whole area was that the residents were against any rezoning, Among the submissioins received were those from Leo Henry, Ann Fusciardi and Tom Tallon, Cllr Gerald Nash, Michael O"Keeffe, the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Conor O"Donovan, Dublin Transportation Office, John and Una Garvey, Fiona Galligan, Patricia Rooney of Drogheda Chamber of Commerce, Mary B Burke and Friends of the Aquiver, Ronan Yore, Cllr Micheal O"Dowd, David Murphy, Members of Drogheda Borough Council, the National Roads Authority, Pat McLoughlin, Lisa Doran, Shannon Homes, Deputy Thomas Byrne, Martina Hannigan, Andrew Bateman and J Murphy Developments.