Local residents, a majority of whom appear to favour the development, say political considerations have been given priority over issues of job creation and the future development of the town.

However, opponents of the scheme claim that had it gone ahead the complex would have had a detrimental impact on commercial and social life in Mountmellick.

Fine Gael-controlled Laois county council voted down the proposal by local developers Owenass Developments to construct a state-of-the-art commercial park at Derrycloney/Derryguile on the outskirts of the town. Owenass claims the Laois Centrum development would create more than 1,000 jobs and could be worth in excess of Euro100m to the local area.

"Turning this proposal down was a political decision.

It's political blackguardism, that's the reality of it, " says Fianna Fáil county councillor, Patrick Bracken. There's fierce resentment locally over what's happened. Two local councillors voted for the development and two voted against.

"It's imperative the development goes ahead. It was to have been the shot in the arm the town badly needs.

Our industrial base is very, very poor. We lost 80 or 90 jobs when the textile factory closed. There's no reason for turning it down.

"This whole issue is a political hot potato at the moment.

How can you justify turning down jobs in a town that's crying out for them?"

Michael Moloney is an independent county councillor. Formerly a member of Fianna Fáil, he's strenuously opposed to the development going ahead. "They want to build a new commercial park on a highly dangerous bog road beside a built-up area that's already chronically congested with traffic."

He claims this is a developer-led proposal which fails to adequately address the infrastructural shortcomings of the chosen location. "The developers came to the county council management and got them on board before the consultation process started. So instead of management sitting down and looking at the plan and deciding what is in the best interests of the town, they got on board with the developer.

That was a critical error.

"This proposal, were it to go ahead, would bring a lot more traffic out onto the N80.

An orbital route has already been designed for the town and we asked the developers if they'd be prepared to build a section of that road. But they weren't willing to look at that suggestion.

"On top of that, they wanted to change the definition of an industrial park to allow for the inclusion of an hotel, a pub and a number of discount stores. Had that gone ahead it would have meant moving the centre of town a mile and a half out the road. To allow that would have been seriously out of kilter with any notion of good planning. We, as councillors, would have facilitated killing off the centre of our town.

"In the past, we were told by the county council that we couldn't rezone land for housing because of sewage and water-supply problems. Now suddenly it was being proposed that we rezone 70 acres for commercial and industrial use as if that wouldn't put a strain on infrastructure.

"I made six submissions on this proposal. I don't see this as a political issue."

Mountmellick townsfolk living near the site location are broadly supportive of the proposed commercial and industrial park, according to Sheelagh Coyle, spokesperson for the Derryguile and Kyletalisha residents' association.

"There is some opposition to the plan, but that's coming from a very, very small minority of residents. The main objection from those who opposed the plan seems to be to the proposal for the inclusion of the hotel, the pub and the discount stores. But the residents' association wasn't opposed to that.

"Part of the proposal was to have a roundabout where the Derryguile road meets the N80. At present there's a Tjunction there. Residents feel the roundabout would have helped considerably with traffic flow.

"There does seem to be a lot of resentment in the town that there may have been the prospect of creating several hundred jobs in the park and that that may be gone now.

There aren't many jobs here and many residents have to drive off out of town every morning to their place of work.

"There's talk now of only having industrial units in the park - that was actually the original plan for the site. Until we see the amended plan it's hard to tell how residents here will feel about any scaled-down proposals."

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Owenass says it now plans to submit a revised development plan for the site, which will not include proposals for an hotel or public house or any retail units, to the county council. "The proposed development will involve industrial usage only and this should address the main concerns raised, " the statement says.

One of the 'key reasons' the company plans to resubmit for industrial zoning is the announcement of plans to upgrade the N80/N52. "This copperfastens the construction of the relief road for Mountmellick and our proposed industrial complex will provide a vital portion of this project.

"We were considering abandoning the entire project altogether but we have been inundated with support from the general public, the local business community and those interested in securing approximately 1,000 jobs for Mountmellick and Co Laois. In fact, Owenass Developments already has agreement in principle from one high-tech engineering company who wish to locate in the development and create 300 immediate jobs."