Methodist Church withdraws planning application

A PLANNING application to facilitate a place of worship for the local Methodist Church in Shannon was withdrawn, just before a decision on it was due to be made.
The trustees of the Methodist Church in Ireland made an application for a single-storey extension to the rear of the existing church house at 5, The Grove, Shannon and for change of use and refurbishment of an existing outbuilding in the rear garden to church house use also.
The application attracted two objections, one signed by a number of residents of the housing estate in question and the other coming from An Taisce.
The residents outlined a number of concerns in their submission. “We wish to formally object to the proposed ground-floor extension at No 5 The Grove, Tullyglass, Shannon. Our objection is on the grounds that the development would cause significant harm to our residential amenities in The Grove by reason of its purposes, sighting, scale and design,” they claimed.
“The submitted planning application describes the development as a change of use to the ‘Existing Church House’ and change of use and refurbishment of the existing outbuilding in the rear garden. In effect, the planning application is to convert what is currently de facto a private residential property into a church and community centre.
“The proposal, by virtue of its purpose, sighting and size will be detrimental to the residential amenity of the neighbouring properties. This is particularly the case for the property at No 4 The Grove, which is adjacent to the proposed development and which currently shares a joint parking bay to the rear of the property. The correspondence submitted with this planning application suggests the development is unlikely to cause much disturbance in the locality. In our view, the application appears to overestimate the available parking and underplays the congestion that is likely to arise as a result of the development. In fact, the proposal is opposed by many local residents (not just signatories to the objection) due to the impact increased traffic will have on access and residential amenities.”
They claimed the area isn’t suitable for a church. “The siting of the proposed development is unsuitable, given already congested parking on this street and the character of The Grove as a private residential development. Locating a church (which can be used for religious services and other church/community-related activities) in such a setting threatens the privacy and ambience of The Grove.”
With regard to the scale of the design, they stated, “The development is clearly a large extension to the current property and is out of character with the other properties in this scheme. This extension will be permanent, though the application suggests it is simply a temporary and near-term solution for the church. We believe that such a development would have an unacceptable overbearing impact on our enjoyment of our homes.”
The An Taisce objection claimed the building was not suitable. “This dwelling that is being extended into use for a church is in a row of residential houses within a residential area and not zoned as community within Tullyglass, Shannon. It is not in keeping with zoning and would be visually obtrusive and not in keeping with the streetscape.”
It also claimed there were not sufficient parking spaces in the area.
In a statement following the withdrawal, Rosemary Power of the Methodist Church said she didn’t believe the development would have caused a major problem but that the church didn’t want to cause any local distress.
“We were surprised at the objection because some of the neighbours had attended our small church events in this and other residential houses and knew we intended to continue worships on a small scale, with a bit more space, especially in view of the sad loss of our building by the airport. We wrote to Clare County Council to clarify that the fears expressed in the objection were completely new to us, as there was never an intention to build a church and community centre and we are one of the lightest users of on road parking. As a minority church, we do not envisage growth in numbers – this has always depended on newcomers to Shannon and the current recession means that we are, in fact, assisting people as they leave. We understand that the objection came primarily from a non-resident who unfortunately imagined something much larger than we intended and as we were unaware of their fears, we were unable to satisfy them in person.
“It is not our way to cause distress or inconvenience to our neighbours. Since it has, in effect, upset some people, we felt it would be a goodwill gesture in line with our Methodist commitment to be ‘friends of all, enemies of none’ to withdraw the planning application. We’re naturally disappointed but the church will find ways to continue to meet and welcome all who wish to join us. We are extremely grateful to the Catholic community for all their support over this tough time.”