MASTER PLAN TO TRANSFORM CASTLEBAR SUPERMARKET

Work starts on £6m. Mayo shopping oasis

Tom Kelly

Local building contractors, Mountain View Securities, moved onto the site today (Wednesday) to begin work on the major extension. The elaborate project, which will be completed by Christmas, will add an additional 25,000 square feet of shopping space to the existing supermarket located in the vicinity of Market Square.

In what is regarded as the biggest undertaken of its type ever in the county, a staff of over seventy will be employed during the programme of work spanning seven months.

The initial phase of work involves the provision of a new car park consisting of 200 spaces on a site known locally as Hopkins' Field.

The site was sold to Mountain View Securities by Castlebar Urban Council for a sum of £478,000 in 1993.

Proposals to start work on the extension at an earlier date were held up by a controversial dispute within the Dunnes family. Planning permission for the development was granted last year following an agreement reached by the Castlebar property firm with Dunnes Stores.

The new car park will increase the number of new spaces at the location by over 80.

Once the facility is completed, work can begin on the supermarket extension on the site of the existing car park. James McTigue, a director of Mountain View Securities, said there would be as little disruption as possible during the course of the work. "The development is one we have been looking forward to starting for some time.

"It will further enhance Castlebar as a leading shopping centre and will have considerable spin-off effects for the town in general.

"When completed, the new supermarket will be the finest of its type anywhere in the country. It will be a Mayo shopping oasis in many respects."

Another local firm, Cavendish Lane Properties Limited, have plans in place to build a six-screen cinema complex near the proposed new Dunnes Stores extension.

Planning permission was granted for the project by Castlebar Urban Council, but an appeal was submitted to An Bord Pleanala by local businessman, Joe Mulroy.

In another major development, preliminary works have got underway on the £25m. plan for the provision of the second phase of Mayo General Hospital in Castlebar.

Workers moved onto the site yesterday (Tuesday) to begin digging trial holes for the extensive project.