A similar Tesco superstore in Westport, Co.Mayo. Pic: Geograph
THE recent granting of planning approval for what will be West Cork’s first Tesco superstore has met with a mixed reaction from local businesses, many of who fear the development will damage existing locally owned enterprises.
The €10 million, 25,000 sq ft mega-store has been approved for a seven-acre site at Newtown on the Glengarriff side of Bantry (next to Rowa) and developers Richard Coffey and Donal Hunt say the new Tesco will create up to 150 full and part-time jobs when it opens in December, injecting €3m in wages into the local economy each year.
Fear
The development has been greeted with apprehension by the town’s business association however who fear that the businesses in town centre will suffer as a result.
Chairman of the Bantry Business Association (BBA), Gearoid O’Leary, told West Cork Times that the Tesco development could do more harm than good for the people and for the business community within Bantry town.
“Bantry needs to develop and grow. We have long looked for more retail development and more jobs within our town but we have major concerns about this plan to locate such a superstore outside the town centre.
“The location chosen, we feel will have an impact on the viability and vitality of the town centre,” Mr O’Leary said.
Objections
Despite the planning permission some issues also need to be resolved regarding the price agreed for the site where the store is due to be built.
That deal was struck during the height of the property bubble but sources close to the development have told West Cork Times that the developers are very confident that construction will begin in the first quarter of this year.
Rumours have also been circulating locally of a possible High Court objection to the decision by parties unnamed but at the the time of going to press no such objection had been lodged.
Shopping mecca
While welcoming the creation of new jobs Mr O’Leary said that other more established employment within the town centre may be put at risk.
“Providing 50 jobs in this out of town retail development could cost up to 75 jobs within the town centre thus having a huge impact negatively on our community.
“Such negative impact has been clearly experienced both in Ireland and the UK and US.
“Bantry Business Association would fully support a supermarket as proposed by the developers within the town centre,” Mr O’Leary continued.
Plans for such a supermarket are in fact underway with news that a major discount retailer is also set to open in the town which could see Bantry become something of a shopping mecca for the western part of West Cork.
Mr O’Leary said, “A site close to the town library has been earmarked for development and a well-known low-cost retailer will be setting up their business in the heart of the town over the coming months.
“As well as that, another site within the town has been proposed for development by an already established business.
“This is the kind of growth Bantry needs. We want to be able to give our customers choice and value for money with the convenience of shopping in the heart of our town so that not just one business benefits and the whole community thrives”.
This is going to absolutely kill any small shops in Bantry. When will these idiots learn these big box stores have killed every small community they have gone into the proof has been there for years. The profits they make go over sees not back into the local area. Thanks again to local politicians……you reap what you sow.
Hi, I am originally from West Cork ( near Clonakilty ) but, currently live in Strabane, Co.Tyrone. A few years ago ASDA built a “super store” just outside the town center. They are a 24 hour store and obviously are very busy. In the main street there is a Supervalu store, with little or no car-parking. Although I would say they lost a bit of business to Asda, they are still in business and can quite often match the prices of so called giant superstores. Providing the “local stores” in Bantry provide a good friendly service, I see no reason for them to worry. The chances are that people already drive to Dunnes in Clonakilty, and Cork city and the big shopping centers are not a million miles away neither.
Disgraceful and an absolute outrage. It will destroy local and small businesses just as it did in the uk years ago and as said already, money goes to uk not into local economy. it is a slippery slope to a greatly diminished cultural intgerity in west cork. it is also the last thing tourists want or expect to see when visiting what is meant to be a beautiful and unspoiled area of Ireland and will be a major disappointment to them affecting their return in the future, why visit west cork to see a giant tescos? I for one will NEVER shop there. Shame on those that passed this.
local “enterprises” are no longer able to provide employment in this climate, 150 jobs means 150 more people who will spend in the local economy, i see this as a positive thing, many people between leap and cork never bother coming further west , this will bring them this direction,about time there was some progression in west cork as far as I am concerned , It certainly cannot continue the way it is with thousands unemployed,
Local Town Council in Bantry has a lot to do with the problems within the town in my opinion. Carparking for SuperValu is virtually non-existent, the removal of the main car park a number of years ago meant that a huge amount of carpark spaces were lost . It’s virtually impossible to park in Bantry and God help you if you wanted to do a big shop in SuperValu – the thoughts of pushing a trolley for five mins in the rain and wind to your car thats parked in some remote spot up some side street would actually put you off doing any shopping there at all. It’s not unfortunately the fault of SuperValu – they have a really lovely shop. It’s typical of the planning that goes into our local towns and communities by those people who think they’re acting in our best interests. On the other side of the argument, I would have to say that if people go to Bantry to shop in Tesco, then its likely that there will be a certain spinoff for other businesses in the town. If you get the footfall then perhaps it’s a good thing. It’s hard to argue for or against because of the current financial strain we consumers are all living under.
I agree wholeheartedly.
The only aim of the Bantry Business Association is to keep competition well away from Bantry with certainly no thought for customers.
Coupled with sensationalist editorials like the one above with words like “Superstore” and “Megastore”, has anyone actually read the plans and noted the retail floor area ? It’s far from either, at 2000 sq metres it’s about the same size as Field’s Supervalu in Skibbereen, would you call that a MEGASTORE ?
Also much has been made of Tesco being “out of town”, were the same concerns raised when Kelly & Co and Thornhills moved out of town to Dunbittern ?
For many years now we have travelled through Bantry to do our weekly shop in Skibbereen, shopping in Lidl as well as Fields, also Drinagh for hardware, buying coal and diesel there and also regularly visiting the garden centre, chemist, butcher and other shops, all at the expense of local Bantry traders.
INTERNET IS KILLING THE HIGH STREET…..WE NEED ASDAS,
As a returnee from the UK, I have seen first hand the destruction to small business that Tesco’s has.
Butchers, bakers, and hardware shops all shut up and never re-opened. Bantry doesn’t need a Tesco’s, if they want to put one somewhere stick it where there are no shops….
If you want to create jobs…..support the small businesses
As a long time resident of Bantry I want to welcome this development not because its Tesco but it breaks the stranglehold that certain local business on any retail grocery that dared to challenge their dominance.
The times they are a changing!