Planning decision for apartments on Bessborough site delayed

The graveyard at the Bessborough Centre in Blackrock, Cork, formerly Bessborough House mother and baby home. Picture: Laura Hutton/RollingNews.ie

A planning decision on an apartment block on the former Bessborough mother and baby home in Cork has been pushed back by a month.

An Bord Pleanála said it needs more time to consider the issues involved in the developer's appeal against a decision by Cork City Council to refuse planning for the proposed eight-storey, 67-unit block which forms part of the overall Gateway View project.

An Bord Pleanála has already refused planning for the other three apartment blocks in the scheme proposed by developers MWB Two.

A decision on the eight-storey block is now expected by early August.

MWB Two adopted a dual-approach to secure planning for the four apartment blocks proposed under its contentious Gateway View development on a privately-owned parcel of land on the former mother and baby home estate.

The firm applied to Cork City Council for planning for the eight-storey apartment block and applied directly to An Bord Pleanála through the Strategic Housing Development (SHD) process for the other three apartment blocks to deliver 179-units. 

Part of the SHD site overlaps an area of land marked on historic maps as “childrens’ burial ground”.

In February, the city council refused planning for the eight-storey block saying it would be premature to consider it as a standalone application in isolation of the SHD project.

While the planning board was still in the process of considering the SHD application for the other three apartment blocks, the developers appealed the city council's decision to refuse planning for the fourth apartment block to the board, saying they accept that a “unique set of circumstances dictated that a refusal from the local authority was the likely outcome”.

They also claimed that the council had “no objection to the principle of the development” and that the unique circumstances around this project had created a situation where the planning appeals board is now the only body that can consider and decide on the overall development.

The board then decided to hold an oral hearing into the SHD part of the residential scheme.

Following three days of detailed evidence from archaeological and mapping experts in April, the board refused planning permission in May amid concerns about the possible existence of infant burials on the development site.

The board said there are reasonable concerns in relation to the potential for a children’s burial ground within the site associated with the former use of the lands as a mother and baby home over the period 1922 to 1998.

“In this context the board considers that it would be premature to grant permission for the proposed development prior to establishing whether there is a children’s burial ground located within the site and the extent of any such burial ground,” it said.

It also considers that it would be premature to grant permission given the implications of such for the satisfactory implementation of the development as proposed.

It is a statutory objective of An Bord Pleanála to make a decision on every appeal within 18-weeks and when it becomes apparent that’s not possible, a notice must be sent to the various parties involved.

In a notice issued to those parties in recent days, the board said it was serving notice that it will not be possible to determine the case within the statutory objective period “due to the necessity for further consideration of the case”.

"The Board now intends to determine the above appeal before August 2,” it said.