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A MAJOR £25 million supermarket development once earmarked for an Omagh town centre site, has been dealt a decisive blow over flood defence concerns.
Planning permission was granted in 2017 for a 6,400 sq metre food supermarket, petrol filling station and car park on the site of the former Scotts Mills factory on the Mountjoy Road. However, the 1.6-hectare site remains undeveloped.
The land is owned by Fane Valley, which has this week criticised Fermanagh and Omagh District Council for not ruling the location a viable alternative for the new Sainsbury’s store earmarked for the Great Northern Retail Park.
The dispute centres on the council’s approval of the £12 million Sainsbury’s development off the Tamlaght Road.
Fane Valley has expressed concern at the decision not to consider its Mountjoy Road property, beside Tyrone County Hall, as a ‘sequential’ site for the proposed supermarket.
“Fane Valley… are dismayed that this site has been dismissed out of hand with no proper consideration,” the company said.
“Despite previously approving a superstore on the Mountjoy Road and acknowledging its benefits for the town centre, the Planning Department now says that it is ‘not considered to be a suitable alternative location’.’”
Fane Valley disputes the council’s assertion that the Mountjoy Road site lacks adequate flood defences.
The council has described the land as ‘undefended’, but Fane Valley maintains that this contradicts a report by the local authority at the time planning permission was granted nearly a decade ago.
Mitigation measures were proposed then in relation to the site, which satisfied both DfI Rivers and the council.
Sainsbury’s previously ruled out locating its new store on the Mountjoy Road on the basis that it was ‘too large’ for its requirements.
Planning officers have stated that the original retail permission for the Mountjoy Road site has now lapsed and that, following adoption of the council’s Plan Strategy, the lands are designated as an ‘undefended area of flood plain.’
They added that, in accordance with policy, development will not be permitted within the undefended floodplain unless it meets five specific criteria. These include essential developments which demonstrate that they would not increase – and where possible would decrease – flood risk.
