Works to begin on developing 400 housing units at Bessborough

Aerial picture of Bessborough, Cork. Picture: Denis Scannell

Technical works will start next week on a section of the former Bessborough estate in Cork City as part of the preparatory planning process for more than 400 houses and a 15-acre public park on the site.

The works will focus on areas to the east and north of the former mother and baby home, away from the southeastern portion where a controversial strategic housing development (SHD) proposal from another developer was rejected last year.

That plan, from MWB Two Ltd, for 179 apartments across three blocks was rejected last May after a Bord Pleanála oral hearing the previous month heard evidence that part of their SHD site overlapped an area of land marked on a 1950 OSI trace map as a ‘Children’s Burial Ground’.

The site where MVB Two Ltd has sought an application for planning permission at Ballinure, Blackrock, Cork on the lands of the former mother and baby home at Bessborough. Picture: Dan Linehan

The Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes was unable to account for the burial places of some 859 infants who died at Bessborough between 1922 and 1998.

In its ruling on MWB’s proposal, the board said it would be “premature” to grant permission before establishing that the site “was not previously used as, and does not contain a children’s burial ground”.

It emerged soon after that ruling that developers Estuary View Enterprises (EVE) also had major housing plans for other parts of the former Bessborough estate.

It is engaged in pre-application consultation with Cork City Council and An Bord Pleanála in relation to two separate SHD projects there.

In a statement last night, EVE said it has drafted plans for “housing and community projects”, which could deliver around 400 new housing units, in a mix of private, social, and affordable housing, as well as the creation of green spaces, a playground, a large amenity park, and a remembrance garden.

The park will span 15 acres to the south of the former Bessborough estate, with a further five acres identified for use as public gardens to the north.

EVE said it is currently engaged in a consultative process with the council and An Bord Pleanála through the SHD application process and that while the exact number of housing units that may be delivered will be determined by the outcome of this process, it said it “hopes to build over 400 much-needed new homes on the site”.

“In advance of the submission of any formal [planning] application, certain technical works have to be carried out, and this work begins on Monday, January 10,” a spokesman said. 

These limited site works are being carried out under the supervision of an independent, qualified archaeologist."

It said it will endeavour to keep all stakeholders informed of its plan throughout the process and "is committed to respecting the history and heritage of the wider site".

It is understood the works will involve the drilling of test boreholes and other relatively non-intrusive excavation works.

Maureen Considine (left) and Catherine Coffey-Brien of the Cork Survivors and Supporters Alliance laying flowers near the Folly at Bessborough last year. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

The Cork Survivors and Supporters Alliance, which led the objections to MWB Two’s housing plans last year, said EVE's announcement refers to other parts of the Bessborough estate.

“Our members, the mothers, always ask:'what good and what harm?',” said spokeswoman Maureen Considine.

On balance, we collectively feel that social and affordable housing at Bessborough would do more good than harm, particularly if these changes occurred after the appropriate memorialisation of the ‘Childrens' Burial Ground’."

“Our focus remains on the ‘Childrens' Burial Ground’, which needs to be state-owned, marked, and protected in perpetuity.”