25-07-2025
Plans for 280 apartments on campus of former Bessborough mother and baby home refused
A proposal for 280 apartments on part of the former Bessborough mother and baby home campus in Cork has been shot down.
An Coimisiún Pleanála, formerly An Bord Pleanála, gave two key reasons, linked to concerns about housing mix and its design, for rejecting Estuary View's The Meadows scheme – one of two large residential schemes proposed by the company on separate sites it owns at Bessborough.
The buy-to-sell Meadows scheme was earmarked for a landbank on the eastern side of the site, and included four buildings ranging in height from one to 10 storeys.
It was submitted to the former Bord Pleanála in 2021 under the since-discontinued strategic housing development (SHD) process.
It also proposed a new pedestrian and cycle way bridge connection with the Blackrock to Passage West greenway, which flanks the site's eastern boundary. The zoning in the area permits residential, but it is an area designated as high landscape value.
However, in its ruling An Coimisiún Pleanála said the mix of units did not meet the target levels set out in the city development plan.
It also said no "statement of housing mix" was submitted, and therefore no justification had been provided in relation to the proposed mix of units.
Secondly, it said it considered its 'excessive and sustained scale, bulk and mass in combination with height, and the consequent plot ratio" would be visually obtrusive from several viewpoints within and adjoining the site.
Burial ground
The commission also noted a third recommended reason for refusal from its inspector – the presence of a potential burial ground immediately in front of the folly – which was among the reasons for its decision to refuse permission for a previous SHD application and another housing proposal on Bessborough.
But it said it believes the Meadows site, could, subject to careful forensic monitoring of ground works, be more amenable to residential development, and it decided not to include this as a reason for refusal.
Labour Cllr Peter Horgan said: "Given that this entire site is fraught with emotion and history, we need to put an end to the constant retrenching of concern that is brought whenever an application is provided here."
Estuary View declined to comment.
