A revised planning application for a shopping centre and other facilities on the former Pye lands in Dundrum, Dublin 14, has been given the go-ahead by Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council.

The scale of the plan, which includes a 200-seat theatre, an 11-screen multiplex cinema, cafes, restaurants, a 78-bedroom hotel, 3,000 car-parking spaces, and facilities for a community radio station, reflects Dundrum's designation as a major centre in the county council area. Of special interest to the planners and councillors who approved the application was the commitment to providing a section of the Dundrum by-pass which has been planned for more than 30 years. Also welcomed was the provision of facilities for a community radio station and rooms for community and educational use.

There is also to be a civic square and an old mill house and pond on site are to be restored. Line B of the Luas system, the Sandyford to St Stephen's Green route, runs close by the site.

The current plan manages to avoid the "bulk" appearance of the previous application, which was criticised and turned down by An Bord Pleanala, largely by putting the carparking spaces underground on a number of levels.

The planning application was made in the name of Alice Developments, a company associated with Castlethorn Developments. The group has recently been buying up more land in the area and plans to link the new shopping centre with a redeveloped version of the current Main Street centre, through a pedestrian walkway behind the Catholic church.

According to Olivia Mitchell, a Fine Gael TD and county councillor for the area, the whole concept of a pedestrianised facility is warmly welcomed in Dundrum.

"Now that the town has achieved town centre status within Dun Laoghaire Rathdown, the kind of facilities in the Alice Developments plan will be very welcome. I don't just mean the additional shopping choice but the community facilities and the cinemas, which give people somewhere to go in the evening."

She also welcomed the "quality" nature of the town centre which is located in a solidly middle class area. She has also suggested that as Dundrum has been identified as a major centre in the development plan, it should have a local bus service running between the industrial estates and the northern end of the town. "We should license a local bus, not just one that is going in and out of Dublin city, but one that would allow people to make short trips around Dundrum, leaving the car at home," she said.