A group which represents survivors of the former Bessborough mother and baby home in Cork mother and baby home say the mothers "feel vindicated" after An Bórd Pleanála refused planning for a €40m apartment scheme on the grounds of the estate.
The long-awaited ruling upholds a decision by Cork City Council in January 2023 to refuse planning to developers MWB Two for the scheme on a landbank it owns on the site in Mahon.
It is the second time the planning appeals board has refused to grant planning to MWB Two for a residential scheme on the former Bessborough estate.
In 2021, it refused planning following an oral hearing for a larger residential scheme the company wanted to build on an adjoining site.
Part of that site overlapped an area marked on a 1950s Ordnance Survey trace map as a ‘Children's Burial Ground’. The map was a key focus of the oral hearing.
In its 2021 ruling, the board said having regard to the findings of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes, and on the basis of the information submitted in the course of that planning application and oral hearing, it was not satisfied that the site was not previously used as, and does not contain, a children's burial ground.
In its latest decision in relation to MWB Two’s smaller 92-apartment scheme on an adjoining parcel of land, the board made reference to its 2021 decision, and said it is satisfied that “no new material information or evidence” has been presented “to substantiate a different conclusion following that previous decision”.
“The Board considers that the potential exists for the presence of human remains and/or burials at this proposed development site associated with the former use of the lands as a Mother and Baby Home over the period 1922 to 1998,” it said.
“The Board considers it would therefore be premature to grant permission for this proposed development prior to establishing the extent of human remains and/or burials, if any, and that such a matter extends beyond the scope of normal planning conditions particularly having regard to the impact this may have on the development as proposed."
The Cork Survivors and Supporters Alliance, which represents a group of survivors of the Bessborough Mother and Baby Home, welcomed the decision.
“The mothers feel vindicated," a spokesperson said.
"They take the reasons cited in the decision as great hope that Irish society is willing to address the legacy of infant death and burial at Bessborough.
“They are also extremely grateful to those who have supported them and call on everyone to help the CSSA to ensure the grounds are treated the same as other public burial grounds in the near future.”
In a statement, MWW Two confirmed that it has received the board’s decision but said: “It will not comment until it has made a proper assessment of the decision and considers its future options."
The board also made reference to the height, scale, and design of the proposed apartment blocks, and cited what it called “their poor relationship to the historic landscape” which forms the setting of Bessborough House, a protected structure, and its folly and landscaped gardens.
The board said the proposed development, notwithstanding revisions submitted as part of the appeal, would result in “isolated residential blocks" and would be "visually obtrusive" in the landscape.
It also said the proposed scheme would comprise “haphazard, piecemeal development which would dominate this historic landscape and detract from the character of the landscape” - designated in the city development plan as an area of high landscape value.