Cork County Council’s plans to rezone land for development in Fermoy at Corrin has been overturned by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage in a direction that was compared to ‘a dictatorship’ in a heated council meeting earlier this week.

Local councillors had successfully made the case in May this year for rezoning an area adjoining Corrin Marts for the provision of an NCT centre. They had also been victorious in making the case for rezoning for industrial use a site outside of Fermoy by the existing businesses of Veolia and South Coast, which is technically a Greenbelt.

The decisions were made as part of a three-year process to formalise the current County Development Plan. However, this democratic process was overturned by central government via …

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