The Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht has withdrawn the appeal it recently made to An Bord Pleanála to halt the construction of a new 40-space car park at Co. Limerick's Adare Manor.
Limerick County Council had granted permission for the development of the car park, but the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht subsequently objected, saying that the location proposed for the car park is in an area that could contain remains of medieval defences.
However, the department now believes that the appeal is no longer warranted.
The Irish Times quotes a Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht spokesperson as saying, "Having received binding undertakings from the developer that, in the event of any such remains being found in the course of pre-construction archaeological test excavation, they will be preserved, the department was satisfied that the appeal was no longer warranted."
Archaeological Assessment And Development Conditions
An archaeological assessment lodged with the car park plans by Adare hotel company Tizzard Holdings concluded that it is unlikely that the car park would cause a direct adverse impact to any identified archaeological monuments. However, it said that there is a possibility that previously undocumented subsurface archaeological features could exist within the boundary of the proposed site for the development since it is situated 15 metres from the town defences.
When it granted permission for the development, Limerick County Council presented a number of conditions meant to protect the site's heritage, including a ruling that if an archaeological survey should discover artefacts prior to the commencement of the car park's construction, an expert could halt the project pending a decision on how best to deal with the remains.
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