A Facebook page has recently been set up for the Lakelands Retail and Leisure Park and features a number of CGI images of what the proposed mixed use retail and leisure development would potentially look like on the former Unipork site in Enniskillen, if planning is approved.

When asked by this newspaper this week what stage the development is currently at, a spokeswoman on behalf of Elm Grange said: “At the minute it’s still going through planning.

“The reason why we posted the Facebook message was really just to try and drum up a bit more support. There’s a few people that aren’t totally over the moon that it’s happening but it actually transpires that there is a lot more people for it.”

“We’ve done the Facebook and the people wanting it, crying out for it in the town, has actually been overwhelming. We’ve had a lot of messages from people wanting to see if they can apply for jobs already so it’s actually turning out really well.

Hopefully we can get the next couple of weeks over us and see how we’re going to go with Covid.

“Then we’re maybe hoping to do a town meeting to get people together, meet people in person, hear their views and concerns and then really try and move forward with it with planning,” the spokewoman told The Impartial Reporter.

Elm Grange shared earlier this year that UK retailer ‘The Range’ will occupy one of the proposed units and a five screen Moviebowl cinema has also been confirmed for the proposed development.

When asked if any other businesses have been confirmed to take units, the Elm Grange spokeswoman said: “Unfortunately because we are at the stage where we are still in planning, we have quite a lot of units that are under offer but they don’t want their name put out there until planning is confirmed. We have the children’s soft play area, the drive-through take-out restaurant, the coffee pod, a number of other retail units and the hotel have all had tenders put in for them.”

“I suppose you could say we’re 90 per cent there but waiting on planning to come out with names.

“A lot of big chains have put tenders in for the units which is always great and there’s a good variety as well so it’s not going to be all the one kind of thing.

“We just need to get that next stage of planning,” she told this newspaper.