{"id":637233,"date":"2026-09-27T03:16:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T03:16:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/637233\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T03:16:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T03:16:23","slug":"tesco-rows-in-behind-erneside-owners-in-objecting-to-new-out-of-town-ms-site-in-enniskillen-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/637233\/","title":{"rendered":"Tesco rows in behind Erneside owners in objecting to new out-of-town M&S site in Enniskillen \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tesco<\/a> has rowed in behind the owners of the Erneside Shopping Centre to oppose plans by Marks & Spencer<\/a> to relocate to a new build store at a retail park on the outskirts of Enniskillen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

M&S is seeking to leave its long-standing unit at Erneside for a new 17,800 sq ft food hall at the recently constructed Lakeland Retail Park on Cornagrade Road.<\/p>\n

Muntermellan Ltd, which acquired Erneside last December<\/a>, has opposed the proposal, arguing M&S has not adequately assessed or discounted alternative town centre or edge-of-centre sites.<\/p>\n

The company has also questioned the retail need for the store and cited the impact on Enniskillen town centre. <\/p>\n

\"Tesco<\/a>\"Reprieve<\/a><\/p>\n

Muntermellan, which is jointly owned by DV8 founders Ian and Julie McMahon, along with property investors Stuart Draffin and Donall McCann, bought Erneside for \u00a312.4m last Christmas.<\/p>\n

\"ErnesideM&S is a longstanding anchor tenant at Erneside Shopping Centre in Enniskillen. <\/p>\n

It came just over three years after they paid \u00a346.5m for the Rushmere shopping centre and launched a major investment to regenerate the Craigavon retail complex.<\/p>\n

It has now emerged that Tesco has officially lodged an objection to the M&S plans via its planning<\/a> agent Martin Robeson.<\/p>\n

The document submitted to Fermanagh and Omagh District Council<\/a> in recent days broadly mirrors the objections made by Erneside, claiming it \u201cwould result in significant harm to the vitality, attractiveness and viability of Enniskillen town centre\u201d.<\/p>\n

The interjection by Tesco is understood to have promoted a new PR drive by M&S to seek public backing for its plans.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, M&S issued a statement via its Northern Ireland PR agency, urging members of the public to submit letters of support to Fermanagh and Omagh District Council.<\/p>\n

\"MarksCGI of the proposed new M&S food hall at Lakelands Retail Park in Enniskillen <\/p>\n

It comes as the planning application from M&S and the owners of the Lakeland Retail Park<\/a> is expected to go before the council\u2019s planning committee.<\/p>\n

Making the plea to the public, M&S regional manager John Paul McShane said: \u201cOur plans for a new foodhall at Lakelands Retail Park represent a significant investment and would help secure our long-term future in Enniskillen. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope local residents will show their support for the plans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Co Tyrone developer Elm Grange Limited is behind the Lakelands Retail Park development.<\/p>\n

The project at the former Unipork factory site originally proposed five retail units, a hotel, a six screen cinema, an indoor play centre, a bowling alley and two garden centres.<\/p>\n

The cinema and bowling alley aspect was understood to be a significant factor in swaying councillors on Fermanagh and Omagh District Council\u2019s planning committee to overturn the recommendation of planning officials by just a single vote in 2021.<\/p>\n

Much of the leisure offering has been dropped, with an updated application to replace it with a new Lidl supermarket approved last October<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Lidl has pledged to retain its existing town centre supermarket for five years following the opening of the new Lakelands store.<\/p>\n

However, the long-term future of the site remains in question, with Tesco\u2019s agent stating \u201cit is understood that the store is ultimately intended to close\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tesco has rowed in behind the owners of the Erneside Shopping Centre to oppose plans by Marks &…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,15635,270728,61,60,16117,270729,139437,6272,4674,202620,4013],"class_list":["post-637233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-enniskillen","tag-fermanagh-and-omagh-district-council","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-lidl","tag-lidl-ni","tag-marks-and-spencer","tag-planning","tag-retail","tag-retail-park","tag-tesco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}