Community care unit for elderly in doubt over planning mix-up
The Irish Examiner learnt last night that the earmarked site off Farranlea Road is still zoned for recreation despite the fact that planning permission for a separate medical facility was granted on the same site almost a decade ago.
That permission has expired and planning permission for the new facility cannot be granted unless the site is rezoned.
Cork’s city manager Joe Gavin is now on a collision course with several city councillors over the issue.
He confirmed that a variation of the city development plan is required if the facility — one of 12 planned by the Government nationwide to ease pressure on public hospital beds — is to proceed.
The Farranlea Road facility is one of three the Health Service Executive (HSE) wants to build in Cork as part of a €112m investment in step-down facilities across the country, designed to provide care beds to older people after their hospital treatment ends.
The HSE has secured planning permission for a 50-bed unit on the grounds of St Mary’s Orthopaedic Hospital in Gurranabraher.
A planning application for a 100-bed unit in Ballin-collig was submitted to the county council on June 13.
Another unit at St Finbarr’s Hospital opened recently on a phased basis.
But the Farranlea Road project is now mired in controversy.
Several councillors are opposed to rezoning the recreational land for development. And they have expressed concerns at the sequence of events which led to the crisis.
The six-acre plus site was owned by the Bon Secours order. Despite the fact that the land was zoned for recreation, the order was granted planning permission in 1997 for a 62-bed community nursing home.
It was a condition of planning that the order provide alternative sporting facilities — which it did on the Lee Road where Wilton United FC is now based.
The former Southern Health Board (SHB) bought the Farranlea Road site with planning for a medical facility from the order in 2001. However, the recreation zoning was never changed.
“For some unknown reason the changing of zoning was overlooked,” Mr Gavin said.
And in a further complication, the SHB never advanced plans to build on the site and the planning expired.
As a result, the HSE, which was set up in 2005 to replace the SHB, had to lodge a fresh planning application in recent weeks seeking permission to build the 100-bed step-down facility on the site.
It was only when this application was being processed that city officials realised the site was still zoned for recreation.
Mr Gavin said the council cannot grant permission for the 100-bed unit “unless and until” the zoning is changed.
“The rezoning should have been done 10 years or so ago,” he said.
“But we are where we are. It’s my own personal view that this project should be accommodated having regard to the history and all the circumstances. It would be reasonable for the council to provide this.”
Fine Gael’s John Buttimer said councillors should not make a decision until they are provided with a report by the HSE on how it is using its current landbank.
“There is space at St Finbarr’s Hospital and at St Stephen’s Hospital. And the Erinville Hospital is lying idle,” he said.
“There is a finite amount of green space left in the city.”
But Fianna Fáil’s Cllr Damien Wallace said the land should be rezoned.
“The question ultimately is do we want a hospital which will facilitate improvements in health care in the area. If we do we can make it happen.”
“I believe it’s the right thing to do and will result in significant improvement in medical care in the area.”
Green Party Cllr Chris O’Leary said he has serious reservations about how the entire process was handled, and about the potential loss of recreation land.
The proposed variation will be advertised soon giving the public a chance to make submissions.
Mr Gavin will then prepare a report and bring it before councillors, probably in September, for a decision.
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