Row over parish selling out to Aldi

Swords parish in County Dublin has controversially agreed to sell part of a land bank containing a former parochial house to discount supermarket chain Aldi.

The sale of 0.6 hectares by St Colmcille's Parish will enable it to clear an overdraft of €1.3m and generate funds to build a new parish centre on the same site.  

But the plan has generated considerable local opposition, with several local representatives saying the development of an Aldi store on the Seatown Road is inappropriate.

For some years, the parish has been planning new parish offices and meeting rooms but decided to shelve those plans earlier this year for financial reasons.

The development of both the supermarket and parish centre is dependent on planning permission from Fingal County Council, and this week significant opposition to the plans have emerged.

The existing two-storey redbrick former parish centre is a protected structure, a constraint that plans for both developments will have to take into account.

Opposition to the proposals is likely to be based on the impact a supermarket and 90 parking spaces would have on traffic levels on a road that serves a number of schools as well as being one of the main routes into the town centre.  

Swords parish pastoral council said this week that the offer was subject to planning permission but would “afford us the opportunity to pay off our current overdraft of €1.3m and should enable us to fund and proceed with the parish office and centre development.”

The proposal, it said was “a very good opportunity” to develop the facility but warned that “if planning permission is not granted the sale of the site does not go ahead.”

The reaction of some local politicians of all parties suggests that this is very much in the balance.

Labour councillor Tom Kelleher said he would object on safety grounds, saying that from a planning point of view, the development would be a “disaster” while Fianna Fáil councillor 

Darragh Butler said his initial reaction was that “it’s not a suitable location.”

Fine Gael’s Anne Devitt said it was “totally, absolutely and completely the wrong location” for an Aldi store.

SIC: CIN/IE