Developers target another section of Bessborough mother and baby home site

After previous plans were rejected, developers are now hoping to build 184 apartments and a creche on a different part of the controversial site.

Their report said 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".

Developers have targeted another part of the former Bessborough mother and baby home estate in Cork for apartments just months after a large scheme at a nearby location was shot down.

A company called Estuary View Enterprises 2020 Limited of Glandore has embarked on consultation with An Bord Pleanála in relation to its proposal to demolish agricultural sheds and structures, and build 184 apartments, a creche and associated site works on land near the former mother and baby home.

They want the development considered under the strategic housing development (SHD) process. A decision from An Bord Pleanála on whether or not the application qualifies for the SHD process is due next January.

The Irish Examiner first reported in May that Estuary View Enterprises, which owns tracts of land to the south, west and north-west of Bessborough House, had made a submission to Cork City Council during the pre-draft public consultation stage of the review of the 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 argued for the landscape preservation areas to be redrawn — a move that would free up areas for residential development.

Their report said 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," it said. 

"No complete record of deaths are known to exist. The potential for any unrecorded burials on the wider Bessborough estate remains unknown.

But it said 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 said.

The consultants further argued 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 argued.

Just weeks after this news emerged, An Bord Pleanála rejected another developer’s proposal for a large SHD project on a privately-owned landbank in the south east of the former Bessborough estate.

MWB Two’s Gateway View development included four apartment blocks.

An Bord Pleanála held an oral hearing into the larger element — 179 apartments in three blocks on a site overlapping an area of land marked on historic maps as “childrens’ burial ground".

Following the hearing, planning was refused amid concerns about the possible location of a children’s burial ground on the development site.

It said it would be premature to grant planning for the development before establishing the presence, and the extent of, any such burial site.

It said having regard to the fifth interim report and the final report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes, and on the basis of the information submitted in the course of the 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.

It said it considered that there were 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.” 

A few weeks later, An Bord Pleanála went on to uphold a city council decision to refuse planning for the fourth apartment block proposed in the Gateway View scheme.

The Cork Survivors and Supporters Alliance, which campaigned against the building of apartments over the childrens' burial site, said any plans for housing in the midst of a housing crisis are to be welcomed.

"We look forward to seeing the detailed proposals that may emerge for this new site as the process unfolds," spokesperson Maureen Considine said.