As many as 40 traders had written to the urban council objecting to the proposed development, which will have Dunnes Stores as anchor tenant and which they say will sound the death knell for many established shop owners in the County Cork town.

Killarney based Galvin Developments has drawn up plans for a 10-unit retail park measuring up to 9,500 square metres adjacent to the existing Tesco and Lidl shops at a site know as Indian Point, on the outskirts of the town. At a special council meeting on Monday night, all nine local councillors voted to rezone the land to facilitate the development, which is expected to create up to 200 jobs locally.

Fintan Tierney of letting agents DTZ Sherry FitzGerald has confirmed that Dunnes Stores has been secured as anchor tenant and says discussions are ongoing with various other national and international tenants interested in locating at the retail park.

"We are now looking forward to progressing the scheme to the next phase, " said Tierney. "This will involve detailed design and pre-planning meetings with Youghal town council management."

Councillors admit their controversial decision is likely to be appealed to An Bord Pleanala.

"We've been under severe pressure on this issue, " said councillor Mary Linehan Foley. "There's been a lot of hype in the town on this subject. Undoubtedly there will be bad feelings in some circles for some time to come. We expect the decision will be appealed. But we can't afford to lose out on an opportunity to attract Dunnes Stores to our town. And the ordinary people of Youghal deserve to have that kind of modern facility. I have a young family myself, and along with my friends I travel to the new Dunnes in Dungarvan and to Middleton where they have Heatons and a big Tesco.

"The point I make to traders is that when I go to Dungarvan I walk around the town and visit several shops.

I'm confident that shoppers who come to our new retail park will also visit the town centre which will be an eightminute walk away. This is a heritage town and we need to start doing more to attract tourists. I think in the future we'll see more specialist shops in Youghal with more pedestrianised areas to make the town centre more people friendly."

But local traders disagree.

"I don't go along with this eight-minute walk scenario and the notion that shoppers at the retail park will then visit the town, " said Kay Curtin, manager of Condon's Florists at North Main Street.

"That's not going to happen.

We've already got serious problems with parking in the town centre. It's important to point out that we're not against Dunnes coming to town. We would welcome that. But we want them to locate in the town, not outside it.

"Things are very quiet here. We're having broadband installed along the main streets and the shops will be empty for three weeks while that's happening. Before that, things were very quiet too.

We feel let down by politicians here. We've identified three separate vacant sites in the town where Dunnes could locate a supermarket. We made a submission to the council but as far as we can see our proposals went straight into the bin."

Councillor Barbara Murray is also in favour of the retail park but said she understands the concerns of shop owners.

"The majority of people living in Youghal would love to see Dunnes coming. However, the traders have a legitimate fear that if too many retail units are located on the outskirts of town there will be nobody shopping in the town centre."