Galway City Council has approved plans to move the local post office in Sathill to a nearby Centra, as well as giving the go ahead for an extension to the store.
Planning permission has been granted for the Salthill post office to be moved from where it is now to O’Connors Centra at 220 Upper Salthill.
The project will also involve the construction of a first floor extension to the store, which will incorporate offices, a staff canteen, and storage space.
“This planning application is to facilitate the relocation of the An Post office from its current location at No. 137 Upper Salthill to the Centra shop”.
“An Post are closing individual standalone post offices around the country in favour of the model of relocating post offices within existing shops,” the application stated.
The council’s report noted that there was no issue with accommodating the post office inside the Centra store “as this involves the rearrangement of the existing internal floor area by reducing the store area” rather than expanding the floor space on the ground floor.
However, the council did note that with the proposed extension at the first floor level to the rear of the store, the plot ratio for the site would be 1.54:1, above the ratio of 1.25:1 which the development plans says should “not normally be exceeded” by a commercial development.
In response to the council’s query about this, the developer said that the space in the extension is for “storage and staff welfare”, and pointed out that adjacent buildings contain multiple floors in excess of what is proposed here.
The store is already experiencing “congestion” without the addition of the post office, and there is no scope to expand the store’s floor space at the ground floor level, it was added.
The application also stated that O’Connors Centra is a “family run business which provides a valuable amenity and employment to the village of Salthill”.
Galway City Council granted planning permission for the development with five conditions attached.
