Councillors oppose pub plan

They spent 20 minutes arguing the case against approval.

But then they were told that the extension had already been built.

The extension was at the Village Inn in Waringstown and councillors felt that there was a parking hazard on the main street.

“It would be exacerbated once the public house was enlarged to take a bigger crowd,” said one councillor.

Another councillor pointed out that the pub sat on a main road which was busy at the best of times.

While there was a car park available many of the patrons did not use it but were content to leave their cars on the main street.

The shock then came from a planning officer who said: “The extension has already been built but it would have got approval in any case.”

He explained that a previous application from the Village Inn for an extension was turned down on the grounds of creating an additional traffic hazard.

But the Planning Appeals Committee had indicated that if it had gone to them they would have no hesitation in allowed the development.

“When this second application came along we had no choice but to comply with what the Appeals Commission had indicated,” said the planning official.