The High Court has quashed planning permission for a proposed Aldi discount food store in Moyross, finding that the planning decision failed to address a development-plan objective on locating new retail in existing centres where practicable and viable.
Watchhouse Cross Shopping Centre Limited and Sataner Limited, which operate the nearby shopping centre, challenged An Bord Pleanála’s 30 January 2024 decision to grant permission for the store and associated works. The court upheld their challenge on one part of their case: the inspector and board did not refer to or engage with Objective LCC06 of the Limerick retail strategy, which identifies existing town, district and village centres as the preferred location for new retail where practicable and viable.
Mr Justice Humphreys said the decision-maker needed to consider the objective’s wording and apply its test to the proposal, including whether retail space at Watchhouse Cross could be made practicable and viable through further development. The inspector had considered whether the centre could accommodate the store, but the judge said that did not replace the required assessment of LCC06. Support elsewhere in the development plan for retail at the proposed site did not remove that requirement.
The dispute concerned a proposed single-storey discount food store with off-licence use at New Road and Knockalisheen Road. The centre’s operators had argued during the planning process that space could be made available there and that the store could affect the centre’s viability. Aldi’s planning assessment said there was no suitable, available location at the centre. The inspector accepted that position, citing the assessment and her observation that most units appeared occupied. The High Court did not decide every factual dispute about the space because those disputes did not alter the failure to address LCC06.
The court dismissed two other grounds. The operators could not challenge alleged defects in consent for council-owned land by relying on a third party’s property rights. And although the planning authority had failed to notify statutory consultees under the relevant regulation, the board later notified them during the appeal process. The court found that omission did not warrant quashing the decision.
The judge did not decide the remaining grounds, which raised issues under EU environmental assessment law. The order provides for certiorari quashing the permission. The court also set out a proposed costs order in favour of the applicants against the first-named respondent, limited to costs attributable to the issue on which they succeeded; the order was to be perfected after a further mention listed for 13 October 2025, unless a party applied otherwise.