Developers eyeing up further residential builds on Bessborough lands
A developer has requested that Cork City Council re-designate lands on the former Bessborough site to be made available for use in residential builds. Pictured is the site where MVB Two Ltd has proposed a residential scheme, with a decision due imminently. Picture: Dan Linehan
The former Bessborough mother and baby homes estate in Cork is being targeted for more residential development as a planning decision is awaited on the first application to build apartments on the site.
An Bord Pleanála is due to issue a decision within days in relation to MWB Two’s strategic housing development (SHD) proposal for 179-apartments on a privately owned parcel of land in the southeastern area of the former estate.
The application to develop three apartment blocks on a site overlapping an area of land marked on historic maps as “childrens’ burial ground” was the subject of a Bord Pleanála oral hearing last month.
Planning inspector, Karen Kenny, has completed her report for consideration by the planning appeals board, with a decision expected within days.
But another development company that owns most of the rest of the estate, most of which is designated a "landscape preservation zone", is lining it up for more residential development and a new neighbourhood park.
The has learned that Estuary View Enterprises 2020 Ltd, which owns tracts of land to the south, west and north-west of Bessborough House, has made a submission to Cork City Council during the pre-draft public consultation stage of the review of the 2015 city development plan arguing for the lands to be “advanced as a broad location for future residential growth” in the new development plan.
Its planning consultants argue for the landscape preservation areas to be redrawn - a move that would free up areas for residential development.
Their report says the former Bessborough estate has been identified as having “residential development potential" and as having a very important role to play locally with respect to "placemaking and delivery of a neighbourhood park".
“It is fully recognised that the site has a history as a mother and baby home. No complete record of deaths are known to exist. The potential for any unrecorded burials on the wider Bessborough estate remains unknown," it says.
But it says archaeological investigations in parts of the lands have yielded "no finds or features of a relevant nature".
“Notwithstanding its past, the land can contribute positively to the future social fabric of the area, to the provision of much-needed new homes and public open space including parkland amenity,” the report says.
The consultants further argue that “significant public good” can come out of the potential development of the lands in a manner “which respects the past and also ensures the setting of Bessborough House is maintained and enhanced into the future”.
“In summary, there are no cultural heritage impacts in principle which would inhibit the possible development of lands at this broad location,” they argue.
The Cork Survivors and Supporters Alliance is aware of the company's interest in the land and is monitoring the process.
The council said because the company's submission contains a site-specific reference or zoning request, it is prohibited under the Planning and Development Act 2000 from considering it at this stage.
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