Green light for Dromineer hotel plan

Tipperary Co Council has granted conditional planning permission for a holiday home complex with restaurant, café and events centre on the site of the old Dromineer Bay Hotel.

Dromineer Bay Developments Ltd is to proceed with an expansive redevelopment of the long-derelict site. Its plan includes demolishing the old hotel and providing a mixed-use commercial and tourism enterprise with short-stay tourism accommodation.

A new two-storey mixed-use building is to be constructed comprising of event spaces with ancillary reception/lobby, office, bar, kitchen and associated stores and WC facilities. Also planned is a tourism-related retail/commercial space; a restaurant with associated kitchen, stores, staff-changing and WC; a retail unit, café and external terrace, and new accommodation intended for tourism use associated with the proposed events spaces and the existing holiday home complex (‘Waterside Cottages’).

The accommodation is to comprise of six one-bed, two-storey terrace units and 14 one-bed apartments.

Further elements of the plan include modifications to the internal access road, parking and amenity area arrangements; construction of new vehicular access from the public road (R495) with provision of additional parking, and reconfiguration of the existing car parking area associated with the former hotel.

RESTAURANT, CAFÉ AND EVENTS CENTRE

The new mixed-use two-storey building is to consist of 1,377sqm with overall heights of 8.2m - 11m. The ground floor is to comprise a restaurant, the proposed tourism-related use, and a retail/commercial unit.

The upper first floor is proposed for the provision of the events space, which is to comprise three separate but inter-connected spaces that can operate in response to event type and size. It is proposed to operate a café on one corner with an external terrace and a restaurant to seat 100 people.

Dromineer Bay Developments Ltd has proposed a space on the ground floor for specific tourism-related use and an open-plan format to assist with water-based activities, as it is located 50m from the public slipway.

The combined maximum capacity of the events centre is 225 guests. The capacity of the café is 30 people and the capacity of the restaurant is 100 people.

The design of the mixed-use building provides a sensitive contemporary style, and the council’s planning report expresses satisfaction that the design will not negatively impact on Lough Derg or the surrounding built environment.

Elsewhere, Dromineer Bay Developments has proposed to extend a number of the existing holiday homes to provide for increased bedroom capacity with improved amenity area to support events that may be held in the adjacent mixed-use building. The proposed development of holiday accommodation will facilitate 40 persons and the modification of the existing holiday homes will facilitate 66 persons, thereby providing accommodation for a total of 106 persons onsite.

The plan also includes 57 car parking spaces. The existing parking provision for the holiday homes has been maintained and increased with an additional five visitor spaces provided. There are 42 spaces available including two disabled spaces. The applicant has proposed 24 bike-parking ports across the site, along with 12 charging points for electric vehicles.

BATS AND SWIFTS

Among the conditions recommended by the council planners is a requirement for the developer to obtain a derogation license for bats from the National Parks and Wildlife Service. This follows a response that the council received from the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage in relation to a “small bat roost” in the building to be demolished. The correspondence suggested that the design of the new building should include features to accommodate roosting bats to compensate for loss of existing roosts.

It also sought the provision, if possible, of nest boxes for swift birds, as it was considered that the new building would offer an “excellent opportunity to facilitate swift nest sites, and thereby expand the existing swift colony in Dromineer”.

The developer had submitted a report indicating that the old hotel “supports a small number of roosting bats and is of lower conservation significance”.

The developer also prepared an archaeology report, noting that the car park is located to the north of the derelict hotel where the bawn wall of Dromineer castle and the ‘Castlehall house’ are listed as National Monuments.

The report concluded that previous development may have removed archaeology but there are possibilities of new finds. Another condition of planning therefore requires the developer to employ an archaeologist to monitor all ground disturbance, specifically works to install surface water attenuation beneath the existing car park. Also among the conditions set out in the planning report is a requirement for the maintaining of vehicular access to the Lough Derg Yacht Club base through the application site throughout the construction phase.