Local businessman pushes on with effort to open hotel and casino in Offaly
Patrick Leneghan’s Bridge House Hotel wants to build a new complex in Tullamore.
A COMPANY OWNED by prominent businessman and well-known hotelier Patrick Leneghan is appealing against a decision to refuse planning permission for a new hotel and casino in Offaly.
The owners of the existing Bridge House Hotel in Tullamore had applied for permission to build a five storey development that would have included an 86-bedroom hotel with a restaurant and bars, a conference centre, a casino and three retail units.
The complex was set to be at Distillery Lane in the centre of Tullamore town, and would have been one of the largest such developments in the midlands area. As many as 100 jobs were expected to be created by the project.
The firm also applied for the “conservation and redevelopment” of two nearby protected structures, the Malt Kiln and the Malt house.
The scheme would have included a link bridge between the existing Bridge House Hotel and the proposed hotel.
The Bridge House Hotel, which is owned by Leneghan, is located in the centre of Tullamore. The four-star facility has 70 ensuite bedrooms alongside a presidential suite, boutique bridal suites and corporate and family rooms.
The Bridge House Hotel
Refused
Offaly County Council refused permission for the new complex. The authority said that it considered the proposed development “would result in dominant, visually incongruous structures and would have a profound negative impact on the streetscape of Tullamore”.
It also said that the plans submitted by the Bridge House Hotel “do not appear to provide for adequate parking facilities to serve the development”.
“The traffic movements and lack of parking facilities likely to be generated by the development would interfere with the free flow of traffic and endanger public safety by reason of obstruction of road users,” it added.
The applicant said that the decision could be a “massive opportunity lost” for the town, and has appealed the ruling to An Bord Pleanála.
The planning authority is due to issue a final judgement in June.
Leneghan, who has an address in Collon, Louth, is a well-known hotelier and previously held the lease on the landmark Earl of Kildare Hotel, now renamed the Kildare Street Hotel, beside Trinity College.
