Planners reject another housing development on site of former mother and baby home

Seán McCárthaigh

A second set of plans for an apartment development on lands of the former Bessborough mother and baby home in Cork city has been rejected just days after an even larger apartment complex in a separate part of the grounds was refused planning permission.

An Coimisiún Pleanála – formerly known as An Bord Pleanála – has ruled that a proposal by developer Estuary View Enterprises (EVE) 2020 Limited to demolish a large number of agricultural buildings and construct 140 apartments on the grounds of Bessborough House in Blackrock failed to meet the planning requirements in terms of unit mix.

Just 1 per cent of apartments in “The Farm” scheme were three-bed units compared to the target figure of 28 per cent set by Cork City Council.

The commission said the plans for the 5.1-hectare site represented a material contravention of the Cork City Development Plan 2022-2028 with no justification provided by the developer for its unit mix.

However, the commission did not adopt a recommendation of its own planning inspector that the application should also be refused planning permission because it was not satisfied that the site was not previously used as a children’s burial ground.

The inspector, Colin McBride, said such a reason had been the basis for An Bord Pleanála to reject two earlier proposed developments in other parts of the Bessborough lands and it would similarly be premature to approve the Farm scheme.

The decision of An Coimisiún Pleanála comes just after it had already rejected plans by the same developer for a 280-unit apartment scheme known as “The Meadows” on a 2.29-hectare site within the Bessborough Grounds.

The commission based its refusal in relation to the Meadows site on both the unit mix and excessive scale of the plans which it ruled would be “visually obtrusive” as well as constituting a substandard form of “incongruous” development.

However, it also did not adopt a similar recommendation by Mr McBride that planning permission should also be refused over concerns about potential burial grounds of children.

The two proposals are part of a three-part masterplan by EVE to open up a large part of the Bessborough lands for the creation of new communities and a large publicly accessible parkland area.

A planning application has still to be submitted for the proposed third phase of 200 apartments in a western part of the grounds.

Planning permission for both the Farms and Meadows schemes were sought under the process for strategic housing developments which obviated the need to first submit an application to Cork City Council.

However, the local authority recommended that EVE’s planning application for the Farm scheme should be approved subject to a number of conditions including the omission of one of the proposed five apartment blocks and a reduction in the height of two other buildings.

It also supported the separate plans for the Meadows scheme.

In contrast, elected members of Cork City Council at a meeting in May 2022 were generally opposed to both developments due to concerns about historic legacy issues associated with the sites and the appropriateness of the projects.

The Farm scheme had also provided for a new pedestrian/cycle bridge over the Passage West Greenway while two repurposed farmyard buildings were due to be used for some apartment units as well as a creche, library, lounge and function space.

EVE said it had met with the Cork Survivors & Supporters Alliance (CSSA) at an early stage of the design process for the Farm scheme because of the sensitivity associated with the location.

However, the developer said the locations within the Bessborough lands that were of concern to the group which they wanted preserved were outside the company’s control but that the CSSA had no objection to the principle of the Farm scheme.

EVE said its report on the cultural heritage legacy of the site had found no evidence to suggest the proposed area for development contained any burials associated with the former mother and baby home.

However, in a submission to the then An Bord Pleanála, the Bessboro Mother and Baby Home Support Group claimed the apartments were not in keeping with the history of the grounds.

It also expressed concern that there was a lack of agreement on the interpretation of maps of the Bessborough lands and that there was “too much ambiguity as to where the majority of children are buried.”

The group claimed there was still a lack of proper inspection of the grounds.

The report by Mr McBride said it had already been widely accepted following an earlier oral hearing about another proposed development on the Bessborough lands that the extent of the area to which uncertainty persists regarding the potential for unrecorded burials was “significant.”