Tesco could yet come to Ballina

Ballina Tesco plans not ruled out, Council told


Anna-Marie Flynn

A multi-million euro Tesco redevelopment in Ballina may still be in the pipeline – despite the withdrawal of the company’s planning application last year.
The news comes on foot of a submission made by the company to Ballina Town Council with regard to the Town and Environs Draft Development Plan spanning from 2009 to 2015, indicating the chain still has an interest in developing a new store in the town in the future.
At a special meeting of the authority last week, senior independent planning consultant, Stephen Dowds, employed by Ballina Town Council, told councillors he ‘would not rule out’ the possibility of Tesco following up its recent attempts to develop a new store.
In what he referred to as ‘a vaguely-worded’ submission, he said: “This submission would indicate that they are still interested but are not saying where they would go about doing it. I would hope that Tesco would invest in the town. They do clearly need to and see their own store as being substandard.”
But Mr Dowds said he would hope that any redevelopment could be achieved in the town centre.
“The retail core of Ballina is still very, very strong, mainly due to the fact that the larger stores of Dunnes and Tesco are based in it. That is important to Ballina. I would hope Tesco will carry out its plans in the centre of the town,” he added.
Permission for a state-of-the-art Tesco store, together with a redevelopment of the Stephenites/Showgrounds, was originally applied for in the name of Ballina Stephenites GAA Club in September 2005.
The application included a single-storey unit of 6,703 square metres, including a café and off-licence. The level eight facility, based at the 13.5 hectare site, and with parking for 500 cars, was set to be four times the size of the existing Market Square store. A comprehensive upgrade of the Stephenites GAA grounds was also envisaged as part of the plan.
However, the application was pulled in June 2008 after Tesco failed to provide further information requested by Ballina Town Council.
Michael Sullivan, Tesco Community Liason Officer, put the withdrawal down to the fact that the company was ‘unable to fulfil the further information request as no agreement could be made with a third party within the allotted time frame’.
Mr Sullivan has stated the company ‘wanted to invest in Ballina’ and would have to ‘review’ its situation, before reaffirming the ongoing commitment of Tesco to Ballina.
Chamber of Commerce CEO, Sandra Cribben, said she has high hopes of an appropriate future development and said the company is ‘completely committed to local business provided by Ballina and the wider region’.