Approval for £1m hotel outside Ballymena put on hold; DUP councillor says intervention by Department for Infrastructure is ‘insulting’

DfI has stepped in to say the council may not grant permission until further advised by the Department.

Mid and East Antrim’s Planning Committee approved the application for a 65-bedroom hotel adjacent to the Applegreen Service Station on the A26 Crankill Road and site of the former Fort Royal complex in May.

The proposal was given the go-ahead despite a recommendation by planning officers to refuse the application.

A letter to the planning committee from DfI stated: “The Department has decided to issue this direction to allow it time to consider whether or not the proposal raises issues that require the application to be referred to it for further consideration and determination.”

The three-storey development would include a lobby, bar and restaurant, as well as a car park with 91 spaces and six for coach parking. The site would be accessed at the Applegreen Service Station.

Paul Duffy, the council’s head of planning, told the meeting in May that the proposed development is located on a designated “protected traffic route”.

He said that the application had been deferred since last year to allow further discussion with DfI Roads.

Mr Duffy indicated there were concerns regarding movements at the junction of the site and A26, and the PSNI has advised it does not support the proposal on “road safety grounds”.

At a meeting of the planning committee earlier this week, DUP councillor Alderman Paul Reid said: “I am somewhat surprised. This is the second or third application that this chamber has taken a decision on, that we have spent time on – the cemetery in Larne and one that has never come into the chamber, Cloghan Point. Now we have had this hotel.

“I have no issue with the Department having a responsibility to police what we are doing but when we take decisions that are very difficult and complex, it is insulting that the Department is telling our officers we cannot issue a determination.

“It is not fair on developers thinking they have got over the line to be told they want to have a look at it.”

He went on to say that councillors have been given training and have “acted in good faith and have looked at the facts” before coming to a decision.

Mr Duffy said the Department has 28 days to give an application further consideration.

Last month, Mid and East Antrim Borough Council received a letter from DfI over a recent decision by the planning committee to approve an application for a new £2.1m Larne cemetery without prior notification. With regard to Cloghan Point, a proposal is currently being considered by the council for the redevelopment of the existing terminal between Whitehead and Carrickfergus, to an import, storage and distribution facility, incorporating petrol, gas, oil and diesel, and the demolition of existing buildings and chimney stack.