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CORK CITY COUNCIL is taking coffee giant Starbucks to court to try to shut its shop on Patrick Street.
In a statement to TheJournal.ie, a spokesperson for Cork City Council confirmed that the case had been referred to the courts, after Starbucks refused to comply with a closure order by 29 June 2017.
The outlet opened in 2015 and was one of three Starbucks in Cork city to open without planning permission.
In March 2016, An Bord Pleanála body ruled that the three developments – the other two are in Opera Lane and Princes Street – amount to a change of use, meaning planning permission is needed for all outlets.
On several occasions since, Starbucks has been denied applications to operate the premises as it would any other of its coffee shops.
City plans designate Patrick Street as primarily a retail area, as per the most recent development plan for Cork.
At various stages, Starbucks attempted to remove the tables, seats and toilets from the location in a bid to make it unnecessary to require planning permission, An Bord Pleanála has noted.
Despite this, however, An Bord Pleanála has ruled that the Starbucks did require planning permission to operate the site. In a determination in March of this year, An Bord Pleanála said that the site was not an “exempted development” from planning permission.
It said: “The Board was also satisfied that the change of use from the former retail use to the use as a “coffee shop”, as proposed, raises external matters that are material in planning terms, and that therefore the change of use in this instance constitutes development.”
The Cork City Council spokesperson said: “Cork City Council is actively pursuing enforcement action in this instance. Following confirmation in March 2017 from An Bord Pleanála that the use is not exempted development, the Planning Authority issued an Enforcement Notice with the requirement to cease the unauthorised use and restore the premises to its former condition by 29 June 2017.
In cases where Enforcement Notices are not complied with the matter is referred to the Council’s Law Department for prosecution through the courts.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, local councillor Sean Martin said that there are already plenty of nearby coffee shops, and cited the case of a Caffe Nero outlet that was denied planning permission in the same area in recent weeks.
“We need to make sure our planning laws work,” he said.
The council spokesperson added that the Caffe Nero had been denied permission “on the basis that the development frontage materially contravenes planning policy objectives for the protection of St Patrick Street as prime retail frontage”.
The nearest Starbucks to the Patrick Street branch is on Opera Lane, 200m away.
Cork is not the only area where Starbucks has opened premises without planning permission.
Last September, the multinational conglomerate opened a store in Waterford city. It was opened without planning permission, prompting Waterford County Council to lodge an enforcement case.
In general, planning permission must be sought when changing the use of a building from a shop or retail store to a restaurant or café.
Starbucks has argued in many of the above cases that its outlets didn’t change the use of the buildings in question.
In Howth in Dublin, and the outlets in Cork, for example, the company said that the service provided in its store didn’t constitute a restaurant or café and therefore planning permission didn’t need to be sourced.
“The issue here is that everyone else has to go through planning,” Labour county councillor for Fingal Brian McDonagh told TheJournal.ie.
There’s an issue here where you can get a competitive advantage if you just plough ahead in lots of different locations.
At the time of publication, Starbucks has not responded to requests for comment from TheJournal.ie.
With reporting from Cormac Fitzgerald
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Seems like they are dodging the rules very deliberately and deserve to be closed
They’re in a whole latte trouble.
@Datu Young: trouble isn’t a word in their mochabulary!
@Datu Young: I’m sure they will grind out a resolution
@Datu Young: They should have bean more careful
@Datu Young: Aaa… here… You’re milking it!
@Datu Young: there’s definitely something brewing
Starbucks claiming not to be a café…….hmmmmmmmmm
@Shane Cusack: well by definition a cafe would be a place that serves coffee. So they are pretty safe on that point
@Séa Graham: You know that Starbucks have been opening “one-off” cafés, serving their coffee as unbranded stuff, and no one bats an eye. Some people just hate chains. Good on ya, ya coffee drinking hipster. I’ve drank in small cafés which serve terrible coffee, so you could do worse. It’s a tad overpriced, but it’s grand coffee to be absolutely fair. They haven’t become a massive brand for serving absolute swill.
@Who’s Yer Man: oh you’d know! It’s muck.
@Martin Byrne: Yes Martin. Of course you think it is. But for a company worth billuns and billuns, it doesn’t really stand to reason then. It’s your personal preference. I’ve certainly had better coffee than Starbucks. And in Cork there are a few really nice independent coffee places I prefer. Actually visiting there this weekend, so must pop into them!
No harm, close em all down! Cork has a great coffee scene with loads of independently owned great places. (With way better coffee)
@Anraí Russell: Hahaha, you’re right. Support local business not corpos from whoever know where !! Any local recommendation Anrai ?
@Anraí Russell: What’s a coffee scene? Educate us
@cortisola: Three fools. Cork coffee roasters. The bookshelf. 3 good ones there
@Cian O Donoghue: Oh and filter on Georges Quay.
@Cian O Donoghue: Soma on Tuckey St and Alchemy on Barrack Street as well :)
@cortisola: Idaho Caroline street a personal fav.
You can’t do that boy!
And on their way to court the city council might fix a few footpaths, especially somewhere like George’s quay which is a nightmare.
@Ger Buckley:
Where’s George’s key?
It’ll save the people of cork from absolutely muck coffee if anything!!
@Trevor W: unfortunately their still selling us coffee either way! €4.10 for a large cappuccino! That is some extortion and I thought ‘Costa’ lot a bobs were bad! Yet over the street on a Monday its €2.50 for a pint of Beamish in The Linen Weaver. They can shove their cappuccinos!
@The Dons: the problem there are those that are prepared to pay 4.10.
I just don’t get it. Their purposely stopping all cafés from operating on Patrick Street and rejected planning for Café Nerro only the other day citing it as prime frontage for retail as a reason yet there is a huge number of vacant units just above Easons up to Pana bridge for a number of years now! Shortsighted red tape nonsense!
@The Dons: eh ? the story is about someone opening a business WITHOUT planning permission.
@Boganity: Exactly and Starbucks have a habit of opening first and then looking for permission
@Boganity: I know all that was wrong, my point is even with planning permission it gets rejected anyway! They’ve openly admitted that already.
@The Dons: There are loads of cafés in that area already though. Easons has Insomnia, Debenhams have their place, Brown Thomas have one, Merchant’s Quay.. Not to mention there are dozens just off Patrick Street. There’s really no need for so many to be fair.
@Caoimhe: so its better to have unsightly vacant units fronting Patrick street instead ya? and there’s a hell of a lot of them at the moment. All those cafés you’ve mentioned don’t even front the street at all? Their all hidden within shops and shopping centres.
@The Dons: They’re still there though! Fair enough the ones in the shops are hidden but I can think of loads more that aren’t hidden within a 3 minute walk of this particular Starbucks. The vacant units should be filled with something else, coffee shops are becoming oversaturated. Plus I’d much prefer to see homegrown places like Filter, Soma, Idaho etc. get the business instead of Starbucks!
@Caoimhe: They are vacant for a number of years now because they cant even fill those units at all, sky high rents and red tape. Any coffee shop that comes along then and the council rejects them. Not just starmucks either! Its not upto the city council to decide what coffee is nicer or which one supports local, thats just a ridiculous argument! If there was too many cafés in an area, they just wouldn’t last, and that would be their own problem. But believe me thats not an issue at all. Vacant derelict sites on Patrick street is the real issue.
They’re absolutely right to enforce the rules as they are. That said, what kind of nonsense is that? Do they not think some people might like to stop somewhere convenient for a coffee while shopping?
@Gerard: Plenty of other cafés about luckily :)
I may be too Italian in thinking this, but to me it looks like Starbuck could not find the right person to which give the mazzetta (bribe).
Great news. Who do they think they are?
Cork is supposed to be a free trade city anyway. Starbucks are anything but. The Coffee in Alchemy makes Starbucks taste like badgers p1ss. Not even close to the same league.
Nothing a few brown envelopes won’t take care of, I’d imagine.
While the rules might be dumb, they apply to everyone including Starbucks. Why would anyone want to go to Starbucks anyway
@@UK: Well, they have wi-fi DUH!
@@UK: Even with planning permission which would have been rejected, they are openly opposed to all cafés on Patrick street. But its grand having Abrakebabra, MacD’s and Burger King!
Not the first time they have done this, howth was another one. They obviously have no respect for the law
They should be closed where they don’t have planning permission but there is an amount of whinging from Cork coffee shops about supporting local when they wouldn’t have much of a business without all the people employed by multi-nationals in Cork. And none of them stay open in the evenings leaving that market entirely to Starbucks.
Sure they just ignore any Irish laws even thought there franchisees are Northern Ireland brothers – parent company needs to become involved
I think their stores in Dublin are also flaunting the law, they are definitely done deliberately. And the councils should come hard on them, plus legal fees charged against Starbucks. Sometimes an example is needed, plus it’s not like they are short of cash. Their earnings through these stores get channel back to Luxembourg with no tax.
A lot of people are missing the point here, Patrick Street is dying on its feet especially the section of street where this store is operating from.Cork City Council would seem to prefer semi derelict eye sores rather than businesses that will bring people into the city centre yet they saddle existing struggling businesses with exorbitant commercial rates – bureaucratic bullshit being supported by vested interests who want to assert their own power – wake up and smell the coffee ffs
An independent coffee shop would have been closed and prosecuted by now
Must say I don’t mind their cappuccino, but it is too expensive. The sandwiches are horrible though.
They do this too often and then pay feck all in taxes. They should be banished from this country.
Rules is Rules boy. Locals can make their own.
FFS
It’s muck
Good. They’re vile. In so many ways.
Personally I think there are to many coffee shops in the city… the city is full of fast food outlets coffee shops and discount shops
Sick of 500 of these hipster cafes around cork anyway
I think their coffee is muck but the council planners are nothing more than a bunch of Nazi’s. A few quid at the Galway tent will make their problems go away.
Obviously some brown envelope didn’t make it to the arse pocket of the right person
There are various Starbucks around that don’t have the proper permissions to operate. Shut them all down and maybe take Costa (fortune) out also while you’re at it
The service provided in Starbucks doesn’t constitute a restaurant or cafe?
Wow. We’ve all been fooled! Here I was thinking that if a place only sells coffees, food and drink then it’s obviously a cafe or restaurant.
Don’t I feel silly now.
I recall a an investigation into taxes , or lack of the they pay to the state. F**K em
Is Starmucks actually operating a brothel on Patrick Street or something according to city council? I always thought they were just trying to sell overpriced shitty coffee in what would have been yet another disused unsightly vacant unit on Corks main drag.
Cheeky corporate, only pay €45 tax ……yes that’s not a typo, €45 in corporate tax in 2016!!!!!!!!!!!and then expects to open outlets without planning permission,
@Ibhar Mac Suibhne: must be a typo as it was for 2015 not 16
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