Woodies committed to have a long term presence in the town.

By Michael Cryan michael@anglocelt.ie Woodies the DIY specialists who are located in the Lakeland Retail Park on the Dublin Road in Cavan town are totally committed to have a long term presence in the town. Last week Flag Properties (Cavan) Limited announced major development plans for the park but it caused some confusion for consumers who were of the opinion that Woodies were leaving the town. Ray Colman, Managing Director of Woodie"s DIY said this week, 'Woodies are extremely happy with the performance of their store in Cavan since it opened in June 2003 and are totally committed to Lakeland Retail Park. We are looking forward very much to opening our new superstore which will enable us to provide an even greater product offering than we do at present in our bigger, brighter and better super store. This extension to Lakeland Retail Park will take approximately eighteen months to complete and will create 65 new full time jobs; 30 new part time jobs; and 60 construction jobs. The planning application submitted by Flag properties is simply for a revision to the layout and design of that already permitted under the existing planning permission for Phase 2. This revised planning application provides for a new 4558 m² superstore for Woodie"s DIY located further back on the site. Immediately this new superstore opens for business, the existing Woodie"s DIY superstore of 3422 m² will be demolished to facilitate the overall revised layout. It must be stressed that, at no stage, will the existing store be closed until the new state of the art superstore for Woodie"s is open and trading. All of the other existing units in Lakeland Retail Park will, of course, remain as they are. In addition to the new Woodie"s superstore, the revised planning application for Phase 2 also provides for a further six new retail warehouse units which are much smaller in size ranging from 797 m² to 1360 m². Under the revised planning application the new Woodie"s superstore and these six new retail warehouse units will be provided instead of the two commercial units and eight retail warehouse units already granted planning permission. While the current planning application provides for a new and improved design and layout, the amount of new retail warehousing space now applied for (6915 m²) is substantially the same as that already permitted under the previous planning permission granted for Phase 2 (6717 m²).