Lidl launches fresh bid for new supermarket

Supermarket giant Lidl has launched a fourth attempt to build a new store in Knocknacarra.

The company has submitted plans to Galway City Council for a new one and two-storey building on their 1.5-acre site off the junction of the Western Distributor Road with Bóthar Stiofáin – beside rivals Aldi.

Earlier this year, An Bord Pleanála overturned a Council grant of permission on the site, branding it a “monolithic and poor quality development” and that it would not provide the necessary landmark building for such a prominent site.

Lidl went back to the drawing board and has now sought permission for a one and two-storey building with a total floor area of almost 2,700 square metres.

It will include a supermarket with off licence area; a café/restaurant; a barber shop; nail bar and physiotherapy clinic.

The vehicular entrance will be from the unnamed link road off Bóthar Stiofáin, with pedestrian entrances on Bóthar Stiofáin and onto the Western Distributor Road. Parking is provided for 87 cars and eight bicycles.

According to the company, the design of the building has been “thoroughly altered” since the rejected plans and now includes a first floor area.

“The proposed development is significantly enhance in terms of the provision of a streetscape and could not, in our opinion, be considered as substandard . . . [it] will provide a strong feature of architectural quality to the Western Distributor Road and the junction in question, this addressing the concerns of the Board in their previous decision,” the application reads.
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