Retail role key to new Cavan County Development Plan
Cavan County Council is seeking inward investment to towns across the county, going so far as to discourage development on the outskirts of towns that might further weaken already-embattled main streets and other core shopping areas.
The initiative is a carry over from the last Cavan County Development Plan 2014-2020, and looks set to be applied to the next plan, currently being draft. It will be put out for public consultation later this year.
From the adoption of the Northern and Western Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy (RSES) on January 27 last, the Council has just 13 weeks to commence reviewing the CCDP 2014-2020. This will also include a Local Area Plan for Cavan Town and Environs. With Cavan Town Council no longer in existence - all such local authorities were abolished in 2014 - there will not be a separate Cavan Town Development Plan.
‘No’ means no
The review commences with a public consultation phase asking the public and interested bodies to highlight strategic issues across the county. That is expected to take two years to complete.
“From a planning department perspective, we have been of late very strong on out-of-town development,” explains Director of Services for Planning with Cavan County Council, Brendan Jennings. “I know we have had a number of enquiries from people, particularly in the retail sector looking to get planning out of town, but we are strictly saying ‘No’.
“Our focus is to attract inward investment and, from there, sustainably build out from that. So everything has to be town centre or we’re pushing everything we possibly can into the town centre,” he told The Anglo-Celt.
Such a strategy is perhaps more pertinent now given the fallout of the current Coronavirus crisis and the impact of restrictions and closures are having on businesses, particularly in the retail and hospitality sectors.
But even before the pandemic took hold, in the case of Cavan Town, several centrally located businesses, some considered staples of the streetscape, had closed their doors for the final time.
Retail reform
Among them was the Melbourne Bakery at 95-96 Main Street. At the time, Melbourne owner Gerry O’Reilly told the Celt that economic circumstances had forced his hand. “Unfortunately we have been battling with it for a number of years and it just became unsustainable. The size of the business, the size of the premises, the number of staff it took to keep it going - it just wasn’t sustainable.”
Other businesses to cease trading include Philip Brady Menswear and Salon Tibo. The latter business had only just celebrated its seventh year in business.
Elsewhere, GameStop on Connolly Street closed its doors. The company had announced towards the end of last year that it would be shutting shops all over Europe after reporting massive pre-tax losses.
The Council continues to view the County Town as its most important landmark in the economic landscape. That position was fortified following the adoption of the Northern and Western Regional Spatial and Economic Strategy (RSES) back in January this year.
Emphasis on Cavan and Monaghan
While that strategy placed significant emphasis on Galway city as the region’s primary hub, followed by Athlone, Letterkenny, and Sligo, county towns such as Cavan and Monaghan were still heralded for their own respective and geographical strengths.
The last CCDP 2014-2020 subsumed what had, up to then, been a separate ‘Retail Strategy’ for the county, but expired in 2014.
Guided by overarching principles to facilitate the ‘sustainable physical, economic and social development’ of the county over a period of six years, the last CCDP considered it ‘essential’ that ‘appropriate retail provision is limited to town cores’.
It recommended that major retail and commercial development outside of urban cores ‘shall not be permitted’, stating also that edge of town core sites may be considered, but only if a ‘strong justification’ could be made and the benefits generally ‘strongly proven’.
Tesco development
One such application, objected to by local businesses was the proposal by Tesco Ireland to develop a new 50,000 sq ft €30 million superstore at Townparks and Tullymongan Lower.
The matter went to An Bord Pleanala, which upheld the Council’s decision.
The Council, which owned part of the elevated land-holding, had agreed to sell its portion of the nine-acre site to Tesco for a sum believed to be in the region of €4.5 million.
Tesco, for its part, agreed to contribute a sum of €1.5 million towards the construction of the now-completed new inner relief road.
At the time permission was first granted, Tesco suggested its new store would only take an estimated nine months to construct, and in the process deliver an additional 100 jobs for the town.
While no building has yet materialised, a spokesperson for the grocery and retail giant informed this newspaper that the Cavan site remains on their property development “roadmap”.
Planning permission for the project remains valid until 2023.
“Tesco confirms that the Cavan site continues to be on our property roadmap although there’s no further update at this point,” a spokesperson informed the Celt recently.
Town Centre
Two other developments potentially affecting the future of the development of Cavan Town’s central core also occurred in recent years.
The first was the sale of a 2.42 acre block of retail and development space in Cavan Town centre back in 2017 to a Dublin-based investment fund.
The deal was agreed almost a year to the day after the €3.25 million property portfolio - with sites facing Main Street, Thomas Ashe Street and Farnham Street - was listed for sale by vendor, Urban Renewal Enterprises (Cavan).
It remains, even now, unclear whether the new consortium of owners envisage resurrecting former ambitions to overhaul the retail landscape of the area, similar to plans held prior to the economic crash in 2009.
The sold property portfolio included eight retail units, eight apartments, two public houses, offices, a school, a former B&B, a car park, a house and a development site.
Generating a rent roll worth €357,000, legacy tenants include Boots Pharmacy, Cavan Institute, Cavan County Council and the HSE.
A proposal by some local businesses to buy their own sites seven years before the eventual sale was completed was rebuffed by ACC Bank, and now several tenants carried over in the deal are among those to have closed their doors on Main Street.
The area is zoned ‘town core’ and a master plan area under the soon-to-expire Cavan Development Plan 2014-2020.
Mr Jennings admits the Council has approached the new owners with a view to gauging their position.
He would not go so far as to detail what those discussions entailed, but said: “They have spoken to us about their plans, but again in the current climate we’re in, it’s very difficult to see anything happening in the immediate or short-term future.
“We have a very strong planning department and our onus is on encouraging and facilitating sustainable planning.”
Abbeylands
The second key development pertaining to Cavan town centre development is the long-awaited Abbeylands plan.
To date the Council has received €250,000 under the Urban Regeneration Development Fund, and a further €404,389 from Fáilte Ireland under its ‘Destination Town’ initiative, to develop a plan for the landbank.
Utilising the near 700 square metre enclosed site flanked by, Main Street, Bridge Street, Townhall Street and Farnham Street, edged a step closer earlier this year with the hosting of a first public consultation on the proposed plans.
The council has hired an extended team of experts made up of Waterford-based DHB Architects, Dublin’s Cooney Architects, and others to oversee drawing up a Part 8 Planning and future funding application, ready for when such a funding stream might come available.
“Obviously our Abbeylands regeneration project places a massive interest in developing the central core of the county town. We’re very much anxious to work with anyone who has an interest in establishing themselves inside the town centre environs, either providing retail, new development, and utilising new space or otherwise,” says Mr Jennings.
The Council’s purchase of the former McIntyre’s site, and recent €1.7 million rejuvenation of the Townhall are both seen as critical elements, while talks are understood to be ongoing with other local landowners with a view to seeing what arrangements or agreements can be reached.
Master Plan
Looking to stimulate and rejuvenate the town centre, the council says it wants to compliment the existing retail offering, while encouraging more footfall by investing in elements such as a remote working hub and other such unique future-facing initiatives.
“The funding from the Department for the Abbeylands project for design is very positive.
“Ultimately it will lead to significant capital investment into Cavan Town and once ourselves and other partners in terms of developing that, set that plan in motion, naturally we expect to see other development fall in line with that,” adds Mr Jennings.
The council executive member further states: “We very much see our plans as being a driver for investment, a cause and effect for more positive development in the locality. It’s not going to happen overnight. These kinds of things don’t ever, but we want to make it happen, we want to do it right, but it’s going to take time.”
County Development
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the council confirmed that an issues paper is due for release later this month, April 23, in respect of the CCDP public consultation phase.
“This paper informs the consultation phase and outlines the key issues and poses questions to assist the public/prescribed bodies/interested parties in engaging at this stage. This issues paper and public consultation phase is open for eight weeks and due to end on approximately June 18, 2020.”
At present, Cavan County Council does not envisage that the current COVID-19 outbreak will impact upon these timelines and will proceed with the review process as outlined.
The new plan, once completed and finalised, will be dated 2022-2028.
The gap of two years between the expiry of the former plan, ending 2020 and the new plan, starting 2022 will be covered by the RSES.