Planning refused for fourth apartment block at Bessborough site

The Cork Survivors and Supporters Alliance said the State must acquire the site, so that the burial area could be preserved

The Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes had found that 923 babies born at or associated with Bessborough had died there, with the burial place of most of the children still unknown. File photo: Laura Hutton/RollingNews.ie

Planning permission for an eight-storey apartment block at the site of the Bessborough Mother and Baby Home in Cork City has been refused.

An application to build 179 apartments in three blocks on a 3.7 acre site in the grounds of Bessborough had already been turned down last May and in a decision outlining its latest ruling, An Bord Pleanala said allowing the eight-storey block "would result in a haphazard form of development which would result in an isolated apartment block in a protected landscape."

The decision was welcomed by the Cork Survivors and Supporters Alliance, who tweeted: "Just heard (from a text, not ABP) that An Bord Pleanala has refused the planning permission appeal for the final block of apartments at Bessborough. This one would have overlooked the Childrens' Burial Ground. Another happy day for the Cork Survivors and Supporters Alliance."

Just heard (from a text, not ABP) that An Bord Pleanala have refused the planning permission appeal for the final block of apartments at Bessborough. This one would have overlooked the Childrens' Burial Ground. Another happy day for the Cork Survivors and Supporters Alliance pic.twitter.com/6VFImrqEuE

— Cork Survivors & Supporters Alliance (@Lost900Bessboro) July 19, 2021

The group had objected to the initial plan on the basis that it would encroach on an area marked as a children's burial ground in a 1950 ordnance survey map.

The Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes had found that 923 babies born at or associated with Bessborough had died there between 1922 and 1988, with the burial place of most of the children still unknown.

Alliance spokesperson Maureen Considine said that when members heard the news "it made their day".

"It is very stressful for them," she said. "While going through this process they were also going through the [Mother and Baby Homes] Commission process, the two things go in tandem and it is a lot to deal with."

Ms Considine said the ABP decision meant all planning avenues had been exhausted. She said that left the company with few options, including either a judicial review or an archaeological exploration of the site, both of which she said would be time-consuming and neither of which would be in the public interest.

Instead, she said it was now time for the State to intervene and acquire the site, so that the burial area could be preserved and offered the same protections as any other cemetery.

"We have asked for government intervention because we have very much brought it as far as we can bring it," she said.

"Now it is time for the State to purchase it," she said, adding that the Alliance has always argued that the site should be formally registered as a burial grounds, which would grant it inherent protections.

The brief decision letter from ABP said the majority of the site in question is in a Landscape Preservation Zone where there is a presumption against development unless it achieves certain site-specific objectives.

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The apartment block would have formed part of the larger, four-block development, which would have also included a creche, with 246 apartments in total. Now all have been refused.

The earlier refusal of the bulk of the development proposed by MWB Two Limited had come after a three-day oral hearing last April and amid criticism from survivors and their representatives regarding a suitable use for the site.

In that decision delivered in May, ABP said it was not satisfied that the site did not contain a children's burial ground and that there were reasonable concerns to believe that it could.

"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 at the time.