Six-floor Bon Secours hospital plan approved

The major extension proposed for the Bon Secours Hospital, in Cork City, has been approved by An Bord Pleanála.

In plans submitted a year ago to Cork City Council, Bon Secours Health System sought permission for the six-floor extension to the College Road facility.

Those plans included the addition of hospital accommodation that would extend by more than half the existing gross floor space of 22,000 square metres, to the rear of the main building. As well as patient bedrooms, a replacement oncology ward and new radiotherapy facilities were included in the plans, along with an improved operating theatre and critical-care unit.

Other changes included the replacement of an existing bridge over the River Lee’s south channel, which connects the lower part of the site with the Western Road.

A previous application, approved by the board six years ago, allowed the construction of an extension of five floors on the site.

Value of the proposed extension/development has been put at €50 million.

Cork City Council granted conditional planning permission for the current plans last July, but that decision was the subject of third-party appeals by local residents.

Despite its planning inspector’s recommendation to refuse permission, the appeals board upheld the council’s decision, but has attached revised conditions.

A decision should issue from Cork County Council in the next week on a planned expansion of the EMC data-storage facility outside Ballincollig.

The firm submitted further information in late January, in relation to the application, late last year, for its Ovens site, where work would be carried out over two phases within the 10-year period of the permission being sought.

EMC Information Systems International is proposing a new, four-storey office building, single-storey data centre, and an extension to an existing energy centre, as well as a four-storey car park and an additional single-storey deck on an existing car park.

Plans to relocate a pub in a north Dublin shopping centre, and to build a shop and apartments in its place, have been withdrawn.

Fingal County Council turned down last August’s application, from Kelly Quinn Capital Management Ltd, late last year. It related to the Ploughman’s public house at Kinsealy Shopping Centre, where it was proposed to build a shop and eight overhead apartments above a 78-space underground car park.

The proposal featured details of relocating the pub to a new, stand-alone building with an overhead medical centre.

The applicant firm had appealed the council’s decision in November and a decision was due next month, but An Bord Pleanála received notice a fortnight ago that the application was being withdrawn.

A retail store in Owen O’Callaghan’s development at no 21 Lavitt’s Quay, in Cork City, may be used as educational offices following a planning decision last week.

The change of use for the ground floor, which is currently occupied by Matthews outdoor shop, was requested by the developer’s, Hilltrent Ltd, before Christmas, to facilitate office use by Cork Education and Training Board.

Long-established retailers Matthews will now relocate to Half Moon Street, on the site of the old Cork Examiner garage, next to Boots, who occupy the original Matthews shop footprint at the corner with Paul Street.

Third-party appeals have been submitted in relation to recently-approved plans for a motorway service off the M8 motorway, in north Co Cork.

In January, 2014, An Bord Pleanála ruled against the application of JR Oronoco Ltd for a similar project, near Junction 14 at Moorepark West, outside Fermoy, which had been granted permission by Cork County Council.

The same local authority received a new proposal from the company in October last year, the appeals board having deemed the earlier one premature in the absence of updated national-service-area policy.

The council gave the go-ahead five weeks ago to the plans now before the board, which are for a shop/restaurant building, forecourt and canopy, fuel facilities for heavy commercial vehicles, picnic and external seating areas, parking and a new entrance and roundabout on the R639 regional road. That decision has been referred by more than a handful of appellants to An Bord Pleanála, which should make a decision on the case by early June.