AN Bord Pleanala has refused planning permission for a £20 million shopping complex and residential development in Bray, Co Wicklow, following local objections.
This overturns a decision last October by Bray Urban District Council which had worked to facilitate the scheme on a 17 acre site on Emmet Park GAA grounds, St Cronan's and Loreto Convent lands.
Bray Residents' Action Group welcomed the move. It had appealed the planning decision, arguing it would damage business, cause traffic congestion and pose a health risk to schoolchildren.
The Noonan Developments plan included an 85,573 square foot single storey shopping complex and a 431 space car park on the GAA grounds, with Dunnes Stores as the anchor tenant.
An 11 arce evelated wooded area east of the Main Street was earmarked for 90 two storey houses and 66 apartments in three and four storey blocks.
A major access road was to be built off Vevay Road to service the shopping centre and residential area and an extension of the existing access road off Main Street was also planned.
In the two page decision released yesterday, the board said the "seriously excessive" scale of the development had elicited the refusal. The access road to serve the shopping centre, schools and residential area would "seriously injure the amenities of the area
It also upheld residents' claims at its oral hearing last February that the development would "tend to create serious traffic congestion due to the excessive levels of traffic generation to which the proposal would give rise at both Main Road and Vevay Road junctions."
In addition, the centre's proximity to other property would seriously injure the amenities of property in the vicinity".
BRAG secretary Mr Jim McNeive said An Bord Pleanala's finding that the plan was contrary to the area's proper planning and development was "the successful culmination of two years of the most intense campaigning".
The group, representing 10 residents' associations and teachers from four schools, had collected 4,000 protest signatures.