The Save Ennistymon Mart Committee (SEMC) has lodged an objection with Clare Co. Council against plans for a new Aldi store on the former Clare Marts site at Ennistymon.

Consultant Brendan McGrath, on behalf of the SEMC, has lodged an objection against Aldi’s plans saying that the demand for additional convenience retailing space in the catchment is overstated and that the site is not large enough to accommodate the scale of development, the Irish Independent says.

It is believed that Clare Marts sold the site for a price of €1.5m to the German retailer last year.

Should the plan go ahead, Aldi will be competing with Supervalu for retail dominance in the town and Aldi’s retail impact assessment lodged with the proposal estimates that the annual turnover of the store would be €9m, the newspaper says.

Aldi has said that the proposed development will not have an adverse impact of any significance on the existing retail provision in the catchment area.

Former Clare Mayor, Flan Garvey, has also lodged an objection against the German retailer and he says that the development would ruin the character of the area.

In its application Aldi said that “the redevelopment of the site will act as a catalyst for the wider development of the wider mixed use zoned site and provide additional retail investment to the south-east of the town centre”.

The site “is the most appropriate to accommodate in terms of scale and nature the proposed development having regard to the fact that it is a brownfield, mixed use zoned site which is specially identified for redevelopment within the North Clare Local Area Plan”, it says.

Kantar Worldpanel’s latest figures on supermarket market share show that Aldi has 8.1% of Ireland’s market share.