From
http://www.thepost.ie/news/ireland/tkmaxx-ordered-to-stop-selling-from-retail-park-49711.html
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Discount retailer TK Maxx has been ordered by the High Court to stop selling fashion clothing from its store in Butlerstown Retail Park in Waterford.
Mrs Justice Mary FinlayGeoghegan reserved judgment on the date when the order would come into effect. The action against TK Maxx, was brought by Warrenford Properties, which manages the nearby Lisduggan Shopping Centre.
In an affidavit, Stephanie Taheny, a director of Warrenford and of Noel Frisby Construction, s aid that retailers in the Lisduggan centre had been ‘‘seriously and adversely’’ affected by TK Maxx’s continued use of its premises in breach of planning permission.
She said TK Maxx had opened its retail warehouse unit in Butlerstown in October 2008. In February the following year, An Bord Pleanála said that TK Maxx’s use of three units at the retail park, and their amalgamation into a single unit, we re unauthorised development.
Taheny claimed that TK Maxx and its agents, Colliers Jackson Stops, were fully aware that the location of a TKMaxx store outside Waterford city centre was contrary to retail policy. She said the city council had confirmed that the retailing of ‘‘non-bulky goods’’, including clothing and footwear, would not be allowed in the retail park.
When the county council later approved TKMaxx’s use of the Butlerstown unit, Taheny said she was astonished.
‘‘That Waterford County Council believed that TK Maxx could operate from this unit without selling fashion and footwear is akin to asking someone to believe that McDonalds would open a fast food takeaway while prohibited from selling hamburgers and chips," she said.
According to Taheny, TKMaxx made ‘‘a deliberate attempt to circumvent the planning policy’’ by describing what it sold in vague terms.
Taheny said that, despite the issue of a warning notice and an enforcement notice in December 2008,T K Maxx had continued to trade from the premises and had ‘‘profited substantially’’.
Accounts for TJX Ireland, trading as TKMaxx, show that turnover in its 13 stores increased by 31 per cent to €131.4 million for the year ending January 31 2009, while pre-tax profits rose by 67 per cent to €25.9 million.
Taheny said the TK Maxx store was a ‘‘serious and significant threat to the viability and continued operation’’ of the Lisduggan centre and could lead to ‘‘significant’’ job losses.
She said TKMaxx was considering moving to a store vacated by Penney’s in Railway Square, and this would help stabilise and even increase retail activity in Waterford city centre.
