LIMERICK Corporation has granted planning permission to Shannon Development for the construction of a replica "historic street" adjoining King John's Castle despite objections from the Heritage Council.
The £3 million scheme, designed by architects Murray O Laoire, was originally intended to be "late medieval" but was revised to include a mix of 18th and 19th century buildings.
Ironically, the same architects designed the ultra modern visitor centre at the castle, which some critics have likened to an elaborate Portakabin. Shannon Development had wanted something more "Tudorbethan".
According to the Heritage Council, the environs of King John's Castle and St Mary's Cathedral - "an important heritage precinct" - would be "adversely affected by the insertion of a conjectural scheme of the kind proposed".
It said the integrity of the surviving monuments, "exhibiting, as they do, the genuine layering of successive periods of building history", would be "permanently compromised by the construction of an imitation piece of urban fabric".
The council, which is now established on a statutory footing, said such developments "may have a place in a historic theme park" but it was "inappropriate to place them in a genuine historic urban context".
Last month, before planning permission was issued, the council told Limerick Corporation that it had considered the revised architectural treatment but said its position was unchanged and it believed a modern design would be "more appropriate".
Mr Peter Pearson, a member of the Heritage Council, said urban renewal in Limerick had "turned its back" on the city's Georgian heritage. If £3 million was available, it would be better spent restoring historic buildings.
Despite its strong reservations about the scheme, which is to be built on a site at Castle Lane and Nicholas Street, the council did not appeal the case to An Bord Pleanala. One of the mitigating factors is that it would incorporate a city museum.
Meanwhile, the Heritage Council has won its first planning appeal against a decision by Wexford Corporation to grant permission for the demolition of a listed 19th century grainstore off Paul Quay to build houses, shops and offices.
An Bord Pleanala ruled that the demolition by J.J. Stafford of the historic grainstore to facilitate the £11 million development "would be contrary to the maintenance of the historic and architectural character of the town centre".
However, it added that the proposed development could be redesigned "in a manner which would reflect the need to retain the grain storage building".
The Heritage Council is awaiting a decision from An Bord Pleanala on another case in Co Wexford, where it appealed against plans by the Christian Brothers to demolish the Model School in Enniscorthy after the urban council revoked its listed status.
