Newfound Group tried to establish a resort complex in Ireland but was turned down by the local planning board, according to a story carried by the Sunday Business Post online edition in its July 2006 edition.
The project would have included 'holiday homes", a 100 room hotel and a golf course. objections were raised on environmental grounds with intervenors against the project including the Irish environment department. The planning board rejected the project...
on the grounds that it would "adversely affect the habitat of the area, especially that of the Lesser Horseshoe Bat, the pine martin and the red squirrel."
It also concluded that the proposed golf course "would represent a significant intrusion into the historic landscape" and that, without a hydrogeological study, it was unknown whether the project would be a "potential threat to the underlying groundwater".
The main opponents of the proposed development were An Taisce, the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, and the Cavan/Leitrim Environmental Awareness Network (CLEAN).
Newfound chief executive Brian Dobbin is quoted as referring to the decision as "bizarre". His remarks in defeat are hardly likely to have endeared him to the locals, given the references to the area as "rundown" and an "unemployment blackspot with a dwindling population." As The Business Post reported,
An Bord Pleanala said the scheme was contrary to proper planning because it would breach the Roscommon county development plan, which seeks to improve and protect high-amenity areas.
Dobbin said he had no plans to resubmit a planning application for the site.
‘‘I’m not going to waste any more of my time and my money – certainly not until the issues between the local authority and the Department of the Environment have been resolved,” he said.
‘‘If the department is trying to ensure that Lough Key park remains rundown and that this area stays an unemployment blackspot with a dwindling population, then it is doing a good job of it.”
The local county council approved the deal in 2005. Dobbin spoke in glowing terms of the project similar to the way his company has described its other projects.
Despite Dobbin's comments, the Lough Key project is apparently not dead. There is a specific reference to Lough Key in a July 2007 release from Newfound, promoting the companies Caribbean initiatives.
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