Planning refused for Bessborough apartments
A computer-generated image of the planned 92-unit residential development at Bessborough, Blackrock. Picture: SHIPSEYBARRY
Planning has been refused for a €40m apartment scheme on the grounds of the former Bessborough mother and baby home in Cork.
City Council planners signed off late on Friday on the decision to refuse planning to developers MWB Two, which had sought permission to build 92 apartments on a site within the former estate.
The reasons for the decision are not yet publicly available.
MWB Two said it plans to appeal the decision to An Bórd Pleanála.
The same company was previously refused planning in 2021 for a slightly larger residential apartment scheme on a nearby site following a Bórd Pleanála oral hearing.
Part of that site overlapped an area marked on a 1950s Ordnance Survey (OSi) trace map as a ‘Children's Burial Ground’.
The map was a key focus of the oral hearing, which culminated in the board refusing planning.
The board said having regard to the findings of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes, and on the basis of the information submitted in the course of the planning application and oral hearing, it was not satisfied that the site was not previously used as, and does not contain, a children's burial ground.
The company then applied last November for planning for a 92-unit residential scheme, ranging in height from five to eight storeys, on a nearby site.
It said this new planning application had been meticulously prepared in order to accommodate a range of views on the location of the development and that it had been planned and designed “with a focus on social and affordable housing units”.
But in a statement on Sunday, MWB Two said it “noted” the planning refusal for this latest project which it described as “regrettable”.
It also said it noted that the refusal to grant planning permission is “not related to the much-publicised legacy issues concerning Bessborough House”.
It said: “This decision is regrettable and does not reflect the quality of the application for the proposed development, which has been meticulously planned and designed with a focus on social and affordable housing units, and which is also guided by the core principles of sustainability and accessibility.
“The company intends to appeal this decision to An Bord Pleanála.
“The company notes that the refusal to grant planning permission is not related to the much-publicised legacy issues concerning Bessborough House.
“This proposed development would provide affordable housing solutions for people living and working close to Cork City.”
Mother and baby home survivor and support groups and several local and national politicians had made submissions on the planning application calling for it to be refused.
The Cork Survivors and Supports Alliance (CSSA), which said it is not opposed “to appropriate and sensitive development of the site at Bessborough”, said in its submission: "It cannot be said, however, that the proposed development is either appropriate or sensitive, in circumstances where there is a strong potential for unrecorded 20th-century infant remains to be dispersed throughout the site of the proposed development.”
In its submission, which had been signed by almost 90 people with links to the site, the Bessboro Mother and Baby Home Support Group said the uncertainty around potential burials on the site which existed in 2021 still applies today.
