Planners block new petrol station near Creeslough blast site

Two firefighters wearing uniforms and yellow helmets are standing in a cherry picker above a petrol station roof and a huge hole in the roof of a building. Brick  and broken wooden beams are exposed.

A decision to grant planning permission for a new petrol station near the site of a deadly explosion in Creeslough, County Donegal, four years ago has been overturned.

The blast, which killed 10 people, happened at a service station in the County Donegal village on 7 October 2022.

In March, Donegal County Council approved a planning application permitting the construction of a new service station in the village, close to the site of the blast.

On Tuesday, An Coimisiún Pleanála (the Republic of Ireland's planning commission) refused permission following an appeal by some relatives of those killed in the explosion.

The planning commission said a significant portion of the land earmarked for the planned development was zoned as an "amenity area".

That means it is designated for "open space purposes and to make provision for new recreation, leisure and community facilities".

As such, a commercial development on the site, the commission said, would go against the site's designation.

It would also be "contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area" and would "establish an undesirable precedent for future similar developments on amenity zoned lands", the commission said.

Speaking to BBC News NI in March, when the plan was granted permission by Donegal County Council, Áine Flanagan, whose partner Robert Garwe and daughter Shauna Flanagan-Garwe were killed, said the decision to approve the plans was "morally and ethically wrong".

Emergency services working work at the scene of an explosion at Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal,

It is the second time a proposal for a new petrol station in the village has been overturned by An Coimisiún Pleanála.

Planning permission for a new development on the actual site of the blast was granted last year but was later overturned following an appeal by the bereaved families.

The most recent application would have seen a new building constructed to include a shop, post office and deli.

The plans also detailed a forecourt, underground fuel storage tanks and pumps, a car wash, outdoor launderette kiosk and an ATM.

Who were the Creeslough victims?

Top row left to right: Shauna Flanagan Garwe and her father Robert Garwe, Leona Harper, Hugh Kelly, Jessica Gallagher. Bottom row left to right: Martin McGill, James O'Flaherty, Martina Martin, Catherine O'Donnell and son James Monaghan

The 10 victims of the explosion included four men, three women, two teenagers and a five-year-old girl - all from the village or surrounding areas.

Those who died were Robert Garwe and his five-year-old daughter Shauna Flanagan-Garwe; Catherine O'Donnell and her 13-year-old son James Monaghan; Jessica Gallagher; Martin McGill; James O'Flaherty; Martina Martin; Hugh Kelly; and 14-year-old Leona Harper.

No official explanation has yet been given for the cause of the explosion.

A primary investigation file was forwarded to the Republic's Director of Public Prosecutions last September by Gardaí (Irish police).

Earlier this year Irish police sent a second file to prosecutors that includes "formal recommendations".

Original source Planners block new petrol station near Creeslough blast site

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