€20m medical centre plan appealed

Plans for a new €20m medical centre on the outskirts of Cavan Town, adjacent to Cavan General Hospital, have been appealed to An Bord Pleanála.

Lisdaran Partnership’s application for the three-storey medical centre is part of a wider scheme for a 160-bed nursing home, plans for which were previously approved by Cavan County Council and not appealed.

Combined, Lisdarn Partnership envisage developing a complete health village that, according to its application, could one day “relieve pressure on acute medical services” due to its proximity to Cavan hospital.

Cavan County Council granted conditional planning permission for the medical centre last month but not before requesting ‘significant further information and revised plans including a Natura Impact Statement’ from the developer. The local authority’s decision has been appealed by neighbouring homeowner, Jim Elliot.

The lands, on which the Lisdarn Partnership seeks to build the proposed medical centre, is locally known as ‘Corr’s Field’ at Loreto Road. The site of around 64 acres sold in 2007 for close to €312,500 per acre - a record sum for the county town.

The landbank bordering Carrickane was later floated back on the market and, in a joint sale by Savills and Crotty Auctioneers, eventually exchanged hands at auction in December 2015 for €740,000, or just €11,562.50 per acre.

A local development consortium secured the purchase and, in January 2020, were granted planning permission for a nursing home at Lisdaran to be delivered in two phases of 80 beds each.

In submissions attached with the most recent application, drawn up by Newry-based Genesis Planning Consultants, it was projected that the medical centre project could create as many as 80 new jobs, including medical and admin workers.

In relation to the nursing home application, it was already stated that a future potential link road could be built connecting to the hospital.

Objection

However, Mr Elliott hired Tipperary-based David Mooney, an experienced town planning consultant, to outline his objection to the proposed plan.

In a report dated November 2021, on behalf of Mr Elliott, Mr Mooney contends that the “justification of the proposed development as being ‘plan-led’ is weak”, and added that the “scale of the proposed development does not integrate” with surrounding developments in the area. He further stated that the roads infrastructure serving the site from Cavan Town is “poor and in need of upgrade” and expressed fears that development would only serve to “exacerbate” the impact of the previously permitted nursing home plan.

He asked that “flood risk” in the area be “adequately investigated and assessed” and furthermore accused the developers of approaching their plans “in a piecemeal fashion”, requesting a masterplan be prepared so residents can “evaluate the impact” on the area from a “strategic viewpoint”.

The report stated: ‘The Lisdaran Partnership have lodged two separate applications for this site without submitting an overall master plan for the entire site that they own. The submitted Site Layout Plan indicates a number of ‘possible future link roads’. This approach to the wider development of the site is considered unacceptable. Local residents should be granted the opportunity to review a masterplan for the site as the wider development of these lands will directly affect the local community.’

Mr Elliott also submitted a letter of his own to planners, dated May 2022, criticising what was submitted to the council by Lisdaran Partnership by way of ‘Further Information.’

He said it was “very difficult” to understand the shared Masterplan “in any meaningful way” as there was no legend or scale included to “accurately interpret” the drawings attached. “As such it is inadequate for the purpose. It omits proper details of car parking required for the proposed development, nor does it indicate any provision for roads other than a new site access,” he remarked.

Describing the project as an “enormous development” that would place “serious demands” on existing public services, Mr Elliott concluded Cavan County Council must “prioritise” the upgrading and management of infrastructure and services in the wider Drumelis, Loreto and Lisdarn areas.

He said that the council needs to “protect” the natural beauty of the area, including the walking path recently developed as part of the urban greenway, adding: “We respectfully submit that there are at least two more suitable sites closer to the town centre for this type of development being either the OPW lands or Cavan County Council’s own proposal for the redevelopment of the Abbeylands. It would be a great addition to the town centre and a major contributor to the commercial success of the Abbeylands project.”

The appeal to An Bord Pleanála is due to be decided in early November.