You'd think one of the most basic pieces of information to get right when submitting a planning application of any kind is the place name where you plan to build. It would be particularly important to get these little details right if, for example, you were applying for a controversial industrial development in an inappropriate rural location.

Unbelievably, one of the many errors peppered throughout West Cork Distillers' flawed planning application for its inappropriate industrial warehousing complex in Tullig is the place name.

Throughout the process -- from their original application (Co. Cork Planning Application 21458) through the current one (Co. Cork Planning Application 21905) to their submission of Further Information to the Cork County Council Planning Authority in late 2022 -- West Cork Distillers, their paid consultants and contractors have consistently referenced a nonexistent location called Tullig, Connagh, Leap. What is perhaps even more surprising is that all correspondence, reports and documents uploaded/sent out by Cork County Council's Planning Authority compound the applicant's error, referring to this fictional location and ultimately granting them planning permission at a location that does not exist.

There is indeed a place called Connagh in Co. Cork, but it is nowhere near the proposed development site at Tullig. Connagh is a rural townland near the village of Ballineen in West Cork, some 22km north east of the proposed development site at Tullig. It even has its own Wikipedia page.

It doesn't take a massive leap of intellect to work out that the location referred to in the application is probably Connonagh, a small village situated at the confluence of the Cashel Stream and the River Roury, where West Cork Distillers' HGVs would turn off the main N71 onto the completely unsuitable local road network as they trundle towards the actual site at Tullig.

This may well have been an honest mistake in the first instance. That can happen... but it is extremely sloppy to make the same error repeatedly, especially when it was pointed out in several third party submissions to both Planning Applications 21458 and 21905.

Throughout the submitted documentation there are references -- both explicit and implied -- to the precision and attention to detail that will apply to elements of this development. However, if the applicant cannot even get the place name right, across multiple documents produced by professional consultants spanning a variety disciplines, and worse, hasn't even bothered to correct the error in subsequent submissions after it has been pointed out, how confident can the community or the County Council be of the “attention to detail” they will apply when it comes to executing this project competently, or to complying with any planning conditions attached to it?

As it stands, it seems the applicant has applied for... and bizarrely, Cork County Council has granted... planning permission at a fictional location that you won't find on any map.