LIT faces further delays to €3.5m Coonagh Cross plans

LIMERICK Institute of Technology is facing further delays to its plans to open a campus at Coonagh Cross.

Limerick City and County Council was to decide on an application from LIT to reconstruct the interior of a disused building at the northside shopping centre by this week.

But instead, the planning authority has requested further information from the college, the second time it has done so since planning permission was sought in January.

The college is proposing to rezone the unused building from retail use to education and training use.

Over 7,000 square metres of space will be converted to educational and training use.

The college is hoping to move 550 of its process engineering students out to the new campus, and other ancillary services.

In a submission to the local authority, LIT committed to delivering thousands of euro of extra infrastructure in the hope that the green light would be forthcoming from the council.

It is new college president Dr Vincent Cunnane’s goal to have the students in the northside campus by September next.

The €3.5m project has seen its target to welcome its first students by this September missed.

The nature of the further information requested from council is not clear, with the local authority legally bound to notify the college before any documentation is made available to the public.