Green light for ‘pergola’ eating area in Greystones shopping centre

The site is located within the existing Meridian Point Shopping Centre on Church Road, an established two-storey plaza in the centre of the town, which has a of retail and restaurants, and other services such as a men’s barber’s.

The extent of the subject site consists of the majority of the ground floor plaza outdoor courtyard area.

The proposed development is for a public realm improvement scheme generally, which consists of a single-story restaurant/ food kiosk area, with two food beverage operator kiosks, a zone for a mobile food and beverage operator , a food hall-style covered seating area with a pergola roof. Plans also provide for public toilets (including disabled access toilet), staff changing area, plant room, hard and soft landscaping and all other associated site works.

The proposal also includes the removal of existing benches, trees and loose planters currently located in the central plaza area to accommodate the new development. To mitigate against the loss of these existing public realm features, it is proposed that they will be replaced with new trees and concrete planters with built-in timber/timber effect benches.

It is noted that there is an existing statue located in the public area and it is proposed that this statue is moved from its current location to a more prominent location near the entrance of the Meridian Point Shopping Centre.

The plans for the pergola is for a steel-framed unity with timber effect infills to be installed with rotating slats over the proposed seating area. The proposed kiosk unit will feature PPC aluminium cladding in a gold colour. The louvres on the outer area of the kiosk to the plant area will also be finished in gold PPC.

The kiosk will feature a hatched area that can be opened and closed facing onto the proposed seating area. The external area of this hatch will be finished to match the cladding of the kiosk.

The Council, in its pre-planning enquiry, noted that the height and appearance of the structure are considered acceptable and the proposed restaurant/cafe uses would be compatible with the Town Centre zoning. It was also noted that the proposed food kiosk units would be of limited scale in relation to the existing shopping centre.

The kiosks will not operate outside of the current opening hours of the Meridian Point Shopping Centre, which are Monday to Saturday from 8am-8pm and Sunday from 10am-8pm.