Hospice’s change of use to college is not planning exempt

The change of use of the former Marymount Hospice building at St Patrick’s Hospital on Cork’s northside, to a third-level college, is not exempt from planning requirements, An Bord Pleanála has decided.

Griffith College Cork had sought an order, in 2013, from Cork City Council, that changing the building to residential college use was exempted development. However, the council decided the works would constitute development that was not exempt, and a second referral was submitted to the council in April last year.

The council again declared that the use of the hospital by Griffith College would not constitute a residential college, meaning it could not be exempted. This was appealed by the college to An Bord Pleanála, but an application was submitted, in the meantime, to permit classrooms on the ground floor of the convent building on the Wellington Road site.