Developers appeal against refusal of planning for Bessborough apartments

The entrance to Bessborough Centre in Cork. MWB Two have expressed surprise at a decision to refuse planning for their 92-unit scheme on the site.

The developers who were refused planning for a €40m apartment scheme on the former Bessborough mother and baby home estate in Cork last month have appealed the decision to An Bórd Pleanála.

MWB Two have expressed surprise at Cork City Council’s decision to refuse planning for their 92-unit scheme, in two buildings ranging in height from five to eight storeys.

They set out several grounds for appeal and insist that the site can be developed “sensitively and successfully”.

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 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.

MWB Two's latest planning application is on a smaller adjoining site to the east of this disputed area.

Council's findings

In its decision last month, the council said the height, scale, design, and relationship of the proposed development to the historic landscape in which it sits, would result in isolated residential blocks in a protected landscape which would comprise haphazard development, and which would detract from the character of a designated area of high landscape value in the city development plan.

In its appeal to the board, MWB Two said following pre-planning talks last July, it reduced the number of proposed units from 110, it reduced the building heights range from six and nine stories, to between five and eight, and it amended the housing mix to make sure 20% of the units were three bedroom.

It also said it took into account how the scheme would fit in with two other larger apartment schemes proposed by a separate developer for nearby landbanks.

MWB Two said: “Given the positive nature of the preplanning discussions which raised no issues with the principle of development and the fact that it is not dependent but has regard to the Meadows SHD, we were surprised by the city council's decision to refuse permission."

Its key grounds for appeal are that the proposed development has full regard to the planning history of the site and the evolving character of development in the area, that it does not constitute haphazard development, and will not result in isolated residential blocks in a protected landscape, and that the height, scale, and design is appropriate and will not detract from the character of the area.

'Robust approach'

MWB Two also points out that it has adopted “a robust approach” to the complex legacy issues on the site, which are not part of the reason for the planning refusal.

A separate development company, Estuary View Enterprises 2020, is behind the two separate apartment schemes, both strategic housing development (SHD) projects, proposed on the Bessborough site, which combined could deliver 420 apartments. 

Decisions on The Meadows SHD, and on The Farm SHD, are awaited.