HSE plan to convert Cork B&B into mental health facility faces further delays  

The HSE bought Glenwood House in January 2021 for €750,000 from the sister and brother in law of its head of mental health services for Cork/Kerry Kevin Morrison. Picture: Larry Cummins

A HSE application to convert a Cork B&B into a mental health facility, lodged 14 months after the building's purchase, faces further delays due to insufficient planning information being submitted.

Cork County Council told the HSE in late April that its planning permission application for Glenwood House in Carrigaline has stalled as the information supplied “is not yet sufficient” to enable the local authority to make a decision. The HSE has yet to respond to the council.

The HSE bought Glenwood House in January 2021 for €750,000 from the sister and brother in law of its head of mental health services for Cork/Kerry Kevin Morrison.

Despite the HSE discussing internally the need to expedite the purchase to ease its rental commitments at Garnish House in Cork city, Glenwood has never been opened.

HSE estates was advised two months prior to Glenwood’s purchase that retention planning permission would be needed to convert it from a B&B to a medical facility.

Despite Cork County Council issuing an enforcement notice to the HSE over €500,000 worth of works being carried out without planning at the property in the interim, no planning application was made until March of this year.

In its correspondence with the HSE, the local authority asked for clarification regarding the number of residents expected to inhabit Glenwood, along with the number of staff.

Lack of clarity about proposed facility

It also noted that “many third-party submissions raise concern about the lack of clarity about the proposed facility in terms of resident profile, staff numbers, risk analysis”. 

The council thus sought “any other information” from the HSE “about the proposed facility and the day-to-day operation of same which you consider relevant” but the HSE has yet to respond

Some 44 observations and objections have been lodged with the council by local residents regarding the planning application, many of which criticised the HSE for its lack of engagement on the matter.

The HSE has six months to reply to the council’s request for information, with the council then afforded a further four weeks to make its decision once that response is received.

Glenwood House was purchased as a replacement for the Millfield House mental health facility in Blackpool, which had been deemed ‘unfit for purpose’, per the HSE’s own capital plan for 2021.

However, despite that centre’s residents being relocated to Garnish House — at a monthly rental cost of more than €40,000 — at the beginning of Covid, it has never been sold, while the caretaker of the building was recently informed of the HSE’s commitment to returning the residents back to Millfield “over the next period”.