Speaking during the September meeting for Waterford’s Metropolitan Area, Councillor Jason Murphy asked if the council could intervene to guarantee a balanced retail offering in the City.
“We seem to have a huge amount of vape shops, beauty salons, nail bars and barber in Waterford City, that seem to pop up every week,” he explained. “Does this council have any role in moderating that, whether it is planning or economic development?
“I don’t think we have a balanced retail offering in our core city centre with the amount of these types of shops that we have.”
In reply to this Senior Planner for Waterford Council, Aisling O’Sullivan, explained that there was currently no legislation for the Council to use to prohibit an over saturation of vape shops and similar businesses. She went on to explain that providing a building was previously used for retail, vape shops can avail of an exemption without requiring any additional planning permissions.
“There is no distinct planning class for vape shops,” said Ms O’Sullivan. “So there is a lack of legislation around them. Because there is not class for them they are used in the general retail sense. So basically they can avail of the exemption, meaning where there was a retail development previously they can go in without the need for planning permission.”
Ms O’Sullivan went on to highlight that this issue went far beyond Waterford.
“I do know that this is gaining a fair amount of traction nationally and there are calls for the government to bring in legislation in relation to vape shops requiring that they may need planning permission in their own right, regardless of what the previous use of the building was.
“What that would do, in effect it would mean that we have control over the amount of these shops are in one particular location and then some governance around the issue.
At the moment there is no distinct legislation dealing with vape shops, and even the definition of what is a vape shop is,” she acknowledged.
“I think we probably will see legislation in the not too distant future in relation to this and then obviously we will take our guidance from there.”
AARON KENT Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme
