A WOMAN who lost her sister and nephew in the Creeslough explosion has said she will never enter a shop if it is built on the location of the tragedy.
Ann Marie Boyle spoke out after Donegal County Council yesterday granted permission for a new service station on the same site on which ten people lost their lives in October 2022.
Planning permission for the site was granted to Vivo Shell Limited with ten conditions[/caption]
The new planning application includes a shop, a post office, fuel pumps, a beauty salon and a space for a memorial garden[/caption]
All families who lost loved ones received registered letters yesterday morning telling them of the decision[/caption]
Families of the blast victims had wanted a memorial at the site — with a law firm representing many of them describing granting permission for the shop as a “morally bankrupt decision”.
Ms Boyle lost both her sister Catherine O’Donnell, 39, and nephew James Monaghan, 13, in the blast.
She said: “I simply would never be able to go there again knowing that Christine and James died there. My family feels the same way.
“And I know that many, many other families and people from Creeslough feel the exact same way.”
Plans for the site include the erection of ten steel poles to honour the dead.
But Ms Boyle said: “The only way we could have honoured the ten people who died on that day was to build a memorable garden where we could all go and honour their memories. Instead, they want to put up ten steel poles. Whoever came up with this idea?”
Planning permission for the site was granted to Vivo Shell Limited with ten conditions, with a notice published on the Donegal County Council planning website overnight.
All families who lost loved ones received registered letters yesterday morning telling them of the decision.
But Ms Boyle insists members of the council should have met them “face-to-face” to tell them before the general public knew.
The main forecourt will be on a slightly different location than the former building on the six acre site.
More than 30 objections were lodged to the planning, with many coming from family members who had lost loved ones.
The new planning application includes a shop, a post office, fuel pumps, a beauty salon and a space for a memorial garden.
But Ms Boyle said the owners of the Vivo Shell franchise, the Lafferty family, should have tried everything in their power to relocate the new service station to a new site.
The Lafferty family say they exhausted all avenues trying to find a suitable new site to replace the temporary shop servicing the village, which is now housed on parish land at the other end of the village.
DECISION TO BE CHALLENGED
Ms Boyle said: “We do not accept that there are no other alternative sites in the area. In fact, we have been told of a number of sites which could have been used.”
And Phoenix Law, who acts for a number of families, will challenge this decision to An Bord Pleanala.
Partner Darragh Mackin said: “It is difficult to comprehend a more insensitive and morally bankrupt decision in recent times.
“Despite the fierce and unrelenting pleas from the families directly affected, Donegal County Council has placed commercial and business interests above the interests and rights of these families. Such a decision will not be taken lying down.”
‘CREESLOUGH IS NO DIFFERENT’
He added: “It is unfathomable that the Grenfell tower or the Stardust nightclub would be rebuilt.
“Creeslough is no different. This decision seeks to rub salt into the open wounds of these families who have now for a second time in recent months been compelled to fight for what ought to be very basic rights. But fight they will.
“Questions must be asked when a contentious decision such as this appears in the local media in Donegal before it is even as much as notified to these families.”