Planning refused for project at Lough Gill
Planning permission has been refused for a €100 million development at Hazelwood House on the shores of Lough Gill in Sligo. The project would have involved the construction of more than 200 residential units and the demolition of a disused factory in the grounds of the historic estate. An Bord Pleanála has upheld the decision of Sligo County Council not to grant a 10-year planning permission for the project which was to incorporate the demolition of the former Saehan Media factory, the restoration of Hazelwood House and the construction of 212 residential units.
Among those making observations or objecting to the project were the Department of the Environment, the Irish Georgian Society, An Taisce, the Hazelwood Action Group and Birdwatch Ireland. Hazelwood House was designed almost 300 years ago by Richard Castle, architect of Leinster House, Powerscourt House and Westport House, and was the ancestral home of the Wynne family for almost 200 years until the 1920s.
The developer, Foresthaze Development Ltd, had undertaken to pass responsibility for the upkeep and management of the historic home to the Irish Heritage Trust after the Palladian-style mansion on the shores of the Garavogue river had been fully restored. The planning board found that the site was within a designated sensitive rural landscape area and a visually vulnerable area, as designated in the Sligo County Development Plan 2005-2011 and that a major portion was also designated as “green belt” in the Sligo and Environs Development Plan 2010-2016.
