Admission re the Brewery Site Development that must be in by tomorrow 20th February!!

This is an objection to the Kilkenny council plan Part 8 of the Brewery Site. I think it should be sent to ksomers@pleanala.ie but hopefully I will be able to check that and add the Pllnning Application ID too in the next couple of hours. 

Part 8 of the plans for the development of the Brewery Site is premature. It should not be considered for permission to develop one part of the site before there is agreement on what will be done with the rest of it. It is also not strictly a ‘retention’ of the ballroom being proposed. From the plans, it appears that most of the building will be knocked and only one perhaps part of a second wall retained and the double height. The idea of a mural of people dancing on the inside wall to be salvaged is a token gesture,  reminiscent of Belfast where everything has been gradually destroyed and only little token reminders of history  remain.

This site has to be archeologically investigated first. Addressing the development of the Brewery Site in fragments is a way to by-pass this need to address the underlying history and pay it respect. There has never been a proper archeological dig and there are most certainly many people buried there. This Part 8 as well is a way to pave over the section once more, without addressing the site as a whole.

The proposed building is big and out of place as it will be visible and to the forefront where it intersects with The Medieval Mile. 

The building has been proposed in such a layout as to block the entrance to the Brewery Site from Parliament Street. This is strategic as the more difficult the entrance there, the more argument there is to support the building of the CAS bridge and road to meet it. The former is still the subject of active high court proceedings and the latter has no planning application in even yet.

Please make sure to assess the Brewery Site as a whole and insist on the full archeological investigation and respect for what’s found, in its future development.

Please bear in mind that An Bord Pleanala have the main say about what happens here in Kilkenny. In the application for the CAS bridge, you yourselves stated that the Ring Road should be completed first before going ahead. Then at a certain point that stipulation was taken out. This time, the people of Kilkenny ask you to really stick to your guns about the handling of this site and not allow further destruction of the landmark medieval city, Kilkenny.

Yours sincerely, Frances Micklem