Councillors to visit site of proposed pet crematorium

A DECISION taken last month by local councillors to approve controversial plans to build a pet crematorium at a scenic location near the Pigeon Top outside Omagh has been overturned.

Local councillors will now make a visit to the proposed location of the facility on the Tattykeel Road before deciding on whether or not to give it the go-ahead.

Following the approval of the crematorium last month, a specially-convened Fermanagh and Omagh Council committee subsequently recommended that the initial decision was re-examined.

There are widespread objections to the proposed facility, which will see small pets being incinerated at temperatures reaching 800 degrees Celcius.

Residents living close to the proposed site for the crematorium claim that it is being ‘imposed on them’ and would be built in a tight-knit local community on the Tattykeel Road.

However, applicant Paul Kelly said he has spent thousands of pounds developing the proposal and is willing to meet objectors.

He said that the idea for the pet crematorium was one that he had been considering for more than a decade.

At a meeting yesterday (Wednesday), the council’s planning committee overturned the decision taken last month to approve the crematorium.

They will now look again at the proposal, hold a site meeting and then reconvene to discuss it next month.

Cllr Stephen McCann said that the application was a significant one and deserved the scrutiny that would come from visiting the proposed site.

However, Fermanagh-based councillor Robert Irvine proposed that the original decision to approve should stand.

A vote on deferring a decision on the crematorium until November was taken and passed after the casting vote of committee chair Cllr Tommy Maguire.

It means that councillors are now expected to visit the site.

They will then meet again in November to decide whether the proposal is granted approval or refused permission to proceed.

Cllr Allan Rainey abstained.

He told the meeting that he had key questions about the proposal which he wanted to see clarified.