Approval for development beside Creeslough Tragedy site overturned

An Coimisíun Pleanála has overturned Donegal County Council’s decision to grant planning permission for a controversial development beside the site of the 2022 Creeslough tragedy.

The permission was overturned after Planning Commissioner Emer Maughan signed the direction on October 5 to refuse permission for the proposals, in line with the recommendation from Senior Planning Inspector of An Coimisíun Pleanála, Elaine Power.

The proposed development, submitted by the listed applicants, Annette and Danny Martin Laverty, was for the demolition of an existing dwelling house and the construction of a new building incorporating a shop, post office, off-licence, a store, a deli, staff welfare facilities, toilets, a forecourt, underground storage tanks and pumps, an ATM, a car wash facility and an outdoor laundrette.

Despite Donegal County Council’s approval in March, the decision was overturned after it was considered by Elaine Power that the site was subject “to a Draft Ministerial Direction to revert the lands, which includes the majority of the appeal site, to an Amenity Area.”

Power’s reasoning continued: “It is considered that the proposed development is premature pending the issuing of the Minister’s Final Direction, which would clarify the zoning of the appeal site.

“In these circumstances, it is considered inappropriate to pre-empt this decision.”

Damien Tansey Solicitors submitted a third-party appeal on behalf of clients who were bereaved families and survivors of the 2022 explosion at the former petrol station on the adjacent site.

The inspector’s report states the appeal claimed the decision of Donegal County Council was “premature, fundamentally flawed and procedurally deficient” and that the lands were “intrinsically connected to the tragedy and is functionally and contextually indistinguishable from the redevelopment of the original site.”

Concerns of safety, traffic, and the overdevelopment of the site were highlighted in the third-party appeal of Damien Tansey Solicitors.

A separate appeal was also submitted, which further highlighted concerns of the principle of the development, the design approach, residential amenity, traffic, and safety concerns, including the fact that “given the history of the site there are concerns regarding the storage of fuel and hazardous material.”

Within the applicant’s response, it was commented that the “trauma which has been caused to many families as a result of the tragic event” was understood and fully acknowledged, and that the “proposed development would be beneficial to the community.”

It was further stated that there was no fuel available in Creeslough, with the closest available fuel around 10km from the village, and that the appeal site was not the same site as the site of the explosion.

Regarding concerns relating to design approach and traffic, it was said that the proposed shop was around 19 metres from the nearest dwelling, wouldn’t “detract from the visual amenity of the area or the character of Creeslough,” and that the Planning Authority considered the traffic impacts to be “acceptable.”

Donegal County Council had previously granted planning permission for a development on the site where 10 people were killed in the Creeslough explosion in October 2022; however, An Coimisiún Pleanála overturned that decision in June 2025.

Victims of the Creeslough tragedy were Shauna Flanagan-Garwe (5) and her father, Robert Garwe (50), Catherine O’Donnell (39) and her son, James Monaghan (13), Leona Harper (14), Jessica Gallagher (24), Martina Martin (49), James O’Flaherty (48), Martin McGill (49) and Hugh Kelly (59).