A rural County Tyrone village is on course for a huge retail investment creating up to 130 new jobs, Tyrone I can exclusively reveal.
There are plans in the offing to build a new petrol station, convenience store and three retail units at a cost in the region of £1.5 million.
And the villagers who will benefit from the provision of such facilities – with planned tenants including a hot food outlet, laundrette and hairdresser – are to be found in Killyman!
The development would represent an investment in the region of £1.5 million and will see around 80 jobs initially being created during construction.
In addition, a further further 45 to 50 positions will be created when all units are complete and up and running, with these described as being “full and part-time jobs for the local community”.
The development has been earmarked for a site described as “vacant land” at what is known as Laghey Corner, on the junction of the Tamnamore and Cavan Roads.
The Dungannon-based Dobson family are behind the ambitious proposals which have been submitted to Mid-Ulster District Council under the umbrella of a “neighbourhood centre”.
It will consist specifically of a petrol filling station, complete with six pumps, air and water service bays and a canopy.
There will also be an associated convenience store, which will include its own deli. It will be one-and-a-half to two storeys to the front and one-storey in heigh to the rear. This alone will be close to 6,500 sq ft with approaching half of that for sales.
There will also be three further retail outlets, one of which is identified as a hot food unit, another a laundrette and the third a hairdressing salon. All of these are around 1,000 sq ft each in size.
There will be parking provision for vehicles too, as well as bicycle stands in front of the convenience store and new retail outlets.
The proposals also detail the inclusion of two electrical car charging points.
The site will be accessed from two points, on the Cavan Road and Tamnamore Road, leading to a shared car park where, specifically, there will be around 70 car park spaces with seven disabled bays.
According to a supporting statement, the scale of the development has been “influenced by the prominent location at the centre of the village, the rural context and the surrounding residential development”.
The new enterprises would collectively stretch to close to 10,000 sq ft.
The site sits directly opposite Laghey Primary School and adjacent to Laghey Methodist Church in a village that currently is home to almost 260 households.
It will see a “comprehensive landscaping scheme” being carried out too, with “extensive native tree planting” to the boundaries. Further tree planting would take place throughout the layout within the car parking areas to include trees, shrubs and ground cover planting.
There will also be a 2.5 metre high boundary fence to part of the site and a stone wall, almost half a metre in height, on the boundaries facing Cavan Road and Kilnamore Road.
Insisting there is a need for the development, the statement says that the “village currently does not sustainably cater for the local community in terms of retail provision for day to day needs”.
Proposed site layout for new forecourt in Killyman
It says there is “limited retail provision within a 10-minute walking time of the proposed site, comprising a small sub Post Office at Killyman Road”, before adding: “There is no provision of retail services such as laundrettes or hairdressers or hot food bars”.
It reveals approval was given for a supermarket to be built in the village back in 2008 but this site was subsequently developed as housing.
The statement adds: “Our needs assessment demonstrates that there is a clear quantitative and qualitative need for the proposal to provide a local neighbourhood facility which will meet the daily needs of the growing population of Killyman and wider rural hinterland.
“The development provides long overdue services for the village.”
The application is now with Mid-Ulster District Council and currently open for public comment before a recommendation comes back to planning committee for final decision.
