Councillors vote to dispose section of Bishop Lucey Park to Freemasons

CORK city councillors have voted to dispose of a section of land in Bishop Lucey Park to the Freemasons to allow for an extension of the Freemasons’ Hall on Tuckey St.

The area of ground, approximately 53.6m², will be disposed to Craft Properties Limited – the legal entity for The Provincial Grand Lodge of Munster Freemasons - for the sum of €1, plus costs of €1,500 plus VAT.

In May last year, councillors approved a material contravention of the development plan to rezone the land which was previously zoned as public open space.

Details of the land disposal were presented to councillors ahead of tonight’s council meeting and councillors voted 18 to seven in favour of the proposal.

City Council chief executive Ann Doherty, in a report to councillors ahead of the meeting, said the disposal was necessary in order to provide disabled and fire access and egress to the building.

Ms Doherty said the property is on the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage and could not be remodelled to provide disabled and fire access and egress within the existing footprint “without significantly changing the character of the building”.

There are a number of conditions attached to the disposal, including that Craft Properties Limited must enter into an agreement with Cork City Council to allow third party groups access to the building, for a minimum period of up to 20 hours a month, “at times convenient to the orderly management of the building, for purposes which may include community, social, musical, historical, ethnic, minority religious, refugee and other uses, on either a free or costs only basis, with a code of conduct to be developed between the council and the Freemasons, and with an annual review of the arrangements to be undertaken”.