Plans for 18 new homes at former Mount Saint Joseph Orphanage in Passage West approved by An Bord Pleanála
An Bord Pleanála has granted planning permission for 18 new homes in Passage West.
Parson Developments Limited got the green light from Cork County Council in January to construct 18 semi-detached homes at the site of the former Mount Saint Joseph Orphanage at Black Road, Passage West in January.
The plans also allowed for the restoration and change of use of the former orphanage.
The development included the demolition of former farm buildings and the annexes to the rear and southwest of the former institutional structure, as well as modifications to the existing vehicular entrance at the Black Road.
It also included associated site works, such as roads, drainage, parking, footpaths and public amenity areas.
However, the plans were appealed by several third parties to An Bord Pleanála, with objections citing 'excessive density and inappropriate scale and urban form of development' which would be 'out of character within the curtilage of the protected structure.'
Concerns raised also included the development having a 'significant detrimental' impact on the visual amenities of the area.
However, the board sided with the council, approving the plans with 24 conditions.
In its decision, the board said the development "would not adversely impact on the character and setting of Mount Saint Joseph's or the Architectural Conservation Area, would constitute an acceptable density of residential development in this location, would not seriously injure the residential amenities of the area, would provide an acceptable standard of amenity for future residents, and would be acceptable in terms of traffic safety and convenience."
"The proposed development would, therefore, be in accordance with the proper planning and sustainable development of the area," the board said.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
19 hours ago
- Irish Times
Wild salmon are on the brink of disappearing from Irish waters
It's difficult to grasp two truths when only one is in plain sight. Take a walk down the chilled section of any supermarket and you'll spot rows upon rows of Atlantic salmon for sale. Whether it's fresh, poached, smoked over peat or skinless, canned, in pots flavoured with lemon and herbs, or ready-made sushi rolls wrapped in rice, farmed salmon might not be cheap, but it's abundant, in high demand (Irish production has risen by 51 per cent in the past few years) and everywhere. The other reality, underwater and hidden from our view, couldn't be more different. In the past five decades, wild salmon numbers in Irish waters have dropped by 90 per cent – and that's from an already low level in the 1970s. They are now on the brink of disappearing. Earlier this month, scientists from Nasco, an international body set up in 1984 to protect these iconic fish, met in Cardiff. Known for their cautious, measured tone, the boffins' latest warning is anything but: wild Atlantic salmon are in crisis , and only 'urgent and transformative' action can save them. Wild salmon are born in freshwater, travel to the sea, and then return to their birthplace to spawn, making them a clear sign of how well we're managing to coexist with other life. They need cold, clean and free-flowing waters, but right now we're offering rivers and oceans that are too warm, polluted, exploited or physically altered, making life impossible for these fish. On top of that, many rivers are blocked by man-made structures like weirs, culverts and dams, preventing salmon from completing their journey. READ MORE Nasco scientists say that salmon farming is a significant threat . Along Ireland's west coast – from Donegal to Mayo to Cork – tens of thousands of salmon are raised in circular open-net cages that float just offshore. For sea lice, the crustaceans about the length of a small button that feed on salmon, these pens are like a giant seafood banquet. The lice attach themselves to the fish using their clawed limbs, then crawl across their skin, feeding on them and eventually eating through to the muscle and fat before releasing eggs into the surrounding waters. Without treatment, an infested farmed salmon won't survive long. For young wild salmon leaving their home river for the first time, the journey to sea is full of danger. A female adult salmon lays thousands of eggs, but only a few will survive to become adults. As the young salmon swim by the salmon farms along the coast out into the Atlantic, they can pick up sea lice. These parasites can cause serious harm; scientists say it only takes a few lice to kill a young wild salmon. However, some experts sharply disagree over how much blame sea lice from fish farms deserve for the decline in young wild salmon. This debate really matters because, by law, every fish farm must have an aquaculture licence to operate. The rules are clear: if the science raises any reasonable question that sea lice from a farm could cause serious damage to wild salmon, then granting a licence becomes very difficult for the authorities to justify. 'Unless a salmon conservation programme is initiated, Ireland could be looking at a situation where we will have little or no salmon left in the wild,' according to Declan Cooke of Inland Fisheries Ireland Scientists can use a simple method to determine how sea lice affect wild salmon. They take two groups of young salmon; one group is given a special chemical treatment to protect them from lice; the other is left untreated. Both groups are then released into the same river, go to sea and face the same conditions. A year later, researchers count how many fish from each group return. If more of the treated salmon come back than the untreated ones, it shows that sea lice have a serious impact. Between 2001 and 2009, scientists from the Marine Institute carried out this 'paired release' research at eight sites in Ireland. Their conclusions, published in 2013: while sea lice cause a 'significant' number of deaths among young wild salmon, the overall impact is 'minor and irregular'. This paper has been used to support the granting of fish farm licences as evidence that sea lice from farms aren't a significant threat to wild salmon survival. [ Wild salmon are an Irish icon. Now they're almost gone Opens in new window ] Not everyone agrees. Scientists from Canada, Norway and the UK raised serious concerns about the paper and, last month, researchers from Inland Fisheries Ireland published a new study looking at 18 years' worth of data from paired released experiments. They found that, on average, an 18 per cent drop in survival among young salmon that weren't treated for lice, and the more lice on the farms, the greater the losses. Their conclusion is clear: sea lice from salmon farms pose a real threat to wild salmon. Why does this matter? Because 12 rivers along Ireland's west coast flow into legally protected areas where salmon farms operate. If scientists are now saying that these farms are killing young wild salmon due to sea lice infestations, then the law leaves little room for inaction. Authorities are obliged to act to move the farms to new locations, revoke their licences or find a way to ensure that there are no lice on the farmed salmon during the critical time when the young wild salmon are heading out to sea. There is no single solution that will save Ireland's wild salmon. If emissions remain high, our waters will continue to heat up. But not everything is hopeless – there are things in our immediate control. We can remove our barriers, free our waters from pollution and, if the science shows it will help wild stocks survive, change how or where salmon farms operate. Holding on to the reality of wild salmon in our waterways is one we should cling to – for future generations if nothing else.
Irish Independent
2 days ago
- Irish Independent
‘Hardship' for West Cork communities over protected nature sites
Much of the West Cork coastline has been designated as a Natura 2000 site, either as a Special Protection Area (SPA) or a Special Area of Conservation (SAC). Those designations are now causing hardship for local people and in some cases preventing much-needed development and infrastructure projects, West Cork Councillors say. At this week's meeting of Cork County Council, Councillors Finbarr Harrington and John Michael Foley called on the Council to write to the government to seek permission from the European Union to carry out an urgent review of Cork's designated Natura 2000 sites. 'In my own West Cork, working harbours, piers and slips were taken into SACs and these are causing unbelievable amounts of difficulties for ourselves as a local authority to do repairs to these piers because we must carry out all kinds of EIAs [Environmental Impact Assessment] before we get to do it,' Cllr Harrington said. 'In relation to rural planning, where you have young couples that are just applying for planning permission for a normal family home to live in it, our planners are obliged to notify them that they're building in an SAC or an SPA or an NHA [Natural Heritage Area] and they must go off and do EIAs, which is costing them thousands and thousands of euros,' he added. Cllr Harrington cited the Garnish slipway at the tip of the Beara Peninsula, which is used by recreational sailors, fishermen and the Coast Guard. Sand builds up at the tip of the slipway over the winter but because it's in the Kenmare SAC, ministerial permission has to be sought to remove the sand. Many of the designations were mapped decades ago and have not kept pace with updated ecological knowledge or with the practical realities faced by rural communities, according to Cllr Foley. 'Right now in County Cork, homeowners struggle to get planning permission for modest homes. Farmers are restricted in their ability to work their land. Local councils find critical infrastructure projects delayed or blocked entirely in many coastal areas. Renewable energy and rural development projects, crucial for meeting Ireland and Europe's climate goals, are held back,' he said. 'We're not asking to dismantle conservation efforts, but we need to be able to complete coastal erosion problems where farms are falling into the sea, roads are falling into the sea. We need to be able to work on things, we need to be able to work on essential works like working harbours. We're not asking for a dismantling of the SECs, they're great, but we are asking for a common-sense approach where we can work,' said Cllr Foley. The Council agreed to write to the government to ask for a review of the Natura 2000 mapping.
Irish Independent
3 days ago
- Irish Independent
Cork Councillors want roadside hedges cut earlier
The Wildlife Act bans the cutting of hedges between March 1 and August 31 to protect wild birds during the nesting and breeding season. However, there are a few exemptions such as when vegetation needs to be cut for road safety reasons. But this week's Cork County Council meeting heard that landowners are wary of using the exemption for fear of being fined. Speaking at the meeting, Cllr Finbarr Harrington proposed that the closed season be pulled back by a month so that hedge-cutting can commence on August 1 instead of September 1. He said the current system isn't working for either road safety or biodiversity. 'If we look at what's happening at the moment is that we're prevented from cutting roadside hedges or verges from March to September. And then they grow onto the road and lorries and buses are contacting us every day. Mirrors are getting broken, windows are getting broken by branches of trees,' the West Cork Councillor said. He said that when the local authority contacts landowners about overgrown hedges, 'they panic a bit. And then they contact their local contractor and they ask them to go down and cut a stretch of road that they own by the road. "And they tell them, cut it well back because they can't cut it again until next September. And the contractor goes down and literally hacks the hedge half to death. So, you have a part of the hedging that's dead basically.' Cllr Harrington said that he was recently contacted by a bus operator whose bus was damaged when a tree hit the mirror, which then smashed the window. The damage cost 4,500 euros to repair. Several Councillors echoed Cllr Harrington's views. 'I'm getting phone calls all the time from lorry drivers, tractor drivers, with mirrors being knocked off of tractors, knocked off of lorries. It's causing a lot of distress to people who are trying to stay in business,' Cllr Bernard Moynihan said. 'We have an awful lot of secondary and very minor roads, which are quite dangerous. When the hedges close in, some roads become single lane. There's no room to pass. And if you can't get those hedges cut, there's accidents waiting to happen. And I know it's important, the birds nesting and all that, but I think human lives are more important,' said Cllr Pat Hayes. Cllr William O'Leary said that in some places school bus routes can't travel on certain roads because of the level of vegetation while Cllr John Collins said that in his area a recent three-car collision was caused by overgrown grass verges impeding visibility. ADVERTISEMENT Cllr Harrington called on the Council to write to the Minister of State for Nature, Heritage and Biodiversity, Christopher O'Sullivan, to ask for a pilot scheme in Cork to trial his proposal of earlier hedge-cutting. 'If we maintain our hedges properly, it's better for biodiversity and it's also better for road users,' he said.
