Incredulity, shock, anger and a sense of dismay swept through the rural West Cork community of Tullig and Reenascreena in waves late last week, as registered letters from County Cork's Planning Office landed in local letter boxes.

Reduced Scale... not reduced impact

The County Council has decided to grant conditional planning permission for West Cork Distillers' inappropriate industrial warehousing complex in the heart of the rural West Cork community at Tullig/Reenascreena. Despite serious omissions and issues with both the original application and the Further Information submitted by West Cork Distillers (highlighted in our Original Group Submission here, and our Further Information Group Submission here), the Planning Authority seems to have overlooked these legitimate and serious concerns, as well as the stated aims of the County Development Plan and their own Chief Executive Officer in their decision on 16/01/2023 to grant conditional planning permission for 6 industrial warehouses on the site in Tullig.

The permission is for a reduced-scale development (the original application was for 12 warehouses on the same site), and comes with 43 conditions attached, but that does nothing to reduce the impact of this inappropriate industrial complex on the local community.

Let down and unheard

As a community we feel let down by the planning process. Cork County Council's planners have paid little heed to our concerns, and the level of capitulation to commercial interests over the needs and wellbeing of residents and the broader health of the rural landscape, environment and way of life is both shocking and disheartening. Aside from the reduction in scale (with an option to apply for additional permission to expand in future) the conditions attached to the permission are far from onerous, and there are already serious questions (raised by council planners themselves during the pre-planning consultation), around the applicants previous planning history and compliance with planning regulation.

We'll be exploring the County Council's decision to grant planning permission, and our response to it, in more detail over the coming days and weeks, and will be highlighting some of our concerns here and through other platforms. We will continue our fight to overturn this completely inappropriate decision through every avenue at our disposal, including submitting an appeal to An Bord Pleanála.

Stay tuned for updates.