Tullow estate resident says he and others left ‘overwhelmed’ by barriers surrounding new development in the County Carlow town

Residents of one Tullow area say they’ve been left overwhelmed by the installation of two barriers surrounding a new development.

There had been no immediate objections to the building on the Rathoe Road which is to be used by Smyths Toys storage space. But there are issues with the type of fence erected as well as berm banking, both of which back onto The Links estate.

The developer’s told KCLR Live they’re working within their planning and has no further comment.

But Cllr Brian O’Donoghue says of the fence “It’s far too high, it should not be above the boundary of the estate and an enforcement order has been served on the fence, the developer has until the 27th of May to take steps to correct it and that enforcement order was issued on the 27th of April”.

He adds “It would be expected, and reasonably expected, that the developer would make the corrections that they have been asked to make, they have until the 27th of May to do that, the next step for the council if it hasn’t happened, if the work hasn’t been done or carried out correctly, the next step would be the High Court, now obviously the developer does have, there are, extension options to allow for the work to be carried out if it would take longer than reasonably expected”.

And Cllr O’Donoghue said that nobody has an issue with the purpose of the building itself, noting “There is not a person in Tullow or Carlow who does not want to see jobs created in Tullow, who doesn’t want to see the factory going ahead, it would obviously be very, very welcome, but this planning was only granted in October, we’re now only in May and we’re already off to a dreadful start, the fence is an absolute monstrosity”.

Listen back to the conversation with him and a local resident on KCLR Live with our Eimear Ní Bhraonáin here: