An Irish Planning Students Blog » planning application

Planning for new children’s hospital set to be lodged

Colin Broderick — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 11:39:46 +0000

Paul Cullen writes:

A PLANNING application for the new national children’s hospital on the Mater site in central Dublin is to be lodged later this month.

The development team behind the new hospital confirmed yesterday that it was pushing forward with the project, despite renewed criticism in recent weeks from retired heart surgeon Maurice Neligan and other leading doctors.

A spokesman for the National Paediatric Hospital Board said a detailed planning application for the project would be lodged in the week beginning August 16th, at which time detailed information on the plans would be provided.

The Department of Health said the project was “advancing to schedule” under the direction of the hospital board.

A detailed design brief had been finalised and the board was preparing to submit planning documents.

He declined to comment on the criticism by Dr Neligan, who last month announced he had changed his mind about the project and now opposes the development on the Mater site or at any of the existing children’s hospitals.

Writing in his regular column in The Irish Times ’s HEALTHplus magazine he admitted he had been wrong to support the plan when it was first unveiled: “I feel that neither the Mater nor the joint children’s hospitals may be best served by this proposed development on a geographically constrained site.”

Dr Neligan suggested a greenfield site with plenty of space and easy access be found as an alternative to current plans.

His stance has been supported by 25 leading medical specialists who say the placing of a national paediatric hospital in Dublin’s city centre is not in the best interest of the sick children of Ireland.

Last week, the Government included the proposed hospital in a list of priority projects that will go ahead, but dropped other healthcare projects.

Construction is due to begin next year and the completion date is 2014. The original budget for the hospital was €750 million but it is now expected to cost less.

IrishTimes

[FI] Plans lodged for longawaited swimming pool (Balbriggan)

Colin Broderick — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 12:14:57 +0000

A new six lane 25m pool for north county Dublin. A shame though that the pool design appears not to be a full length “deep” pool, its a pity it isn’t because it could have been used as a competition pool. Enough about non planning matters.

Since this article was written there has been 2 further submissions objecting to the proposed leisure centre development. The grounds for there rejection can be summarized as follows:

Issues in realtion to direct overlooking of there properties from the bar/lounge area of the proposed development.
Noise issues in relation to the associated plant required for the operation of a swimming pool.
Noise issues in relation to the increased traffic that will be created by the new development.
The size of the members bar/lounge.
Issues in realtion to the drainage of the site and the potential for disruption of the drainage on their own lands due to the proposed construction of an attenuation pond for storm drainage.
Issues in relation to Water Supply in the local area being disrupted due to the large volumes of water needed for the operation of a swimming pool.

BALBRIGGAN Rugby Club and Swimworld Investments are awaiting a decision from Fingal County Council on planning permission for the long-awaited swimming pool development at the club grounds. Swimwor ld Investments (formerly Kingfisher), have combined with the club to apply for planning permission for the facility before Christmas and as the New Year breaks, the developers are hoping for a green light from developers.

So far, only one submission from the public has raised concerns about the development. Neighbours of the site, Eamonn and Phyllis Carew want reassurances that measures will be taken to avoid increasing the risk of flooding on their property, if the development goes ahead.

The couple’s submission to the planning file, states: ‘While we would mostly welcome such an amenity to the local area we are very concerned about the increased flooding risk this could cause for our family home.’ The couple believe that extensive work needs to be done to the Bracken River to improve drainage in the area and that this should be a condition of the project’s planning permission.

There is written consent and support for the development on the file from Balbriggan Rugby Club who have backed the idea from the beginning.

Should the project win the approval of planners, there is a € 3.4 million grant in the pipeline to support it. That money was controversially moved from a proposed swimming pool project in Skerries.

Balbriggan Rugby Club hopes the swimming pool will be up and running and open for business within a year of planning permission being granted and said it will be a positive development for the whole area. The development will create jobs in the construction phase and around 35 people will be employed in the operation of the facility, a welcome local boost for jobs.

Although the pool is a commercial exercise, Fingal County Council has secured between 60 to 70 hours of community access to the facility per week.

Fingal Independent

€460m sport, leisure complex planned

Colin Broderick — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:18:35 +0000

A PLANNING application for what Michael Lowry TD has described as “the most sophisticated and ambitious project that Ireland has ever seen” will be lodged with North Tipperary County Council this morning.

The Independent TD was speaking yesterday in Horse and Jockey at the launch of a €460 million cultural, sporting and leisure development featuring a huge casino and new all-weather racecourse.

The development, called the Tipperary Venue, is proposed for an 800-acre site close to the village of Two-Mile-Borris in the heart of Mr Lowry’s Tipperary North constituency.

The developer, Richard Quirke, did not speak during a one-hour presentation to invited guests. Mr Lowry said he wished “to explain to the media who he is”.

The former Fine Gael minister said: “In these times of economic challenge, our country needs businessmen like Richard Quirke” whom he described as “a local man made good who wanted to give something back”.

He praised his “ambition, vision and innovation” and thanked him for “having the strength and courage to commission this massive development.”

After the event, Mr Quirke, a former garda, told The Irish Times that he had “made a lot of money” from property in Dublin including the sale of the old Carlton cinema. His company, the Dublin Pool and Juke Box Co, runs the Dr Quirkey’s Good Time Emporium arcade on O’Connell Street.

Mr Quirke, who is from Thurles, has bought the land and already spent €30 million on the Tipperary Venue project.

He said he had “considerable monies” and was confident that he could raise financial backing from “foreign investors”. He would not approach Irish banks because “even if they were interested”, he “wouldn’t go near them”.

Mr Lowry said “no State money” would be needed for the project “which will float on its own commercial merit”. He was confident that planning permission would be secured by the end of the year and that construction could start early in 2010.

An estimated 1,000 jobs would be created in building the facility, which would eventually create 2,000 full-time jobs.

Mr Lowry said, however, the project was dependent on the Oireachtas passing proposed new legislation to enable the opening of casinos. The plans had “already been presented to the Taoiseach”, Ministers and other officials and “got a warm response”. He was confident that the necessary legislation would be passed and that there would be no objections to the plans, which have “the full support of the local community”.

Dublin architect Brian O’Connell, who designed the Tipperary Venue, said it would include a 500-bedroom, five-star hotel; a vast 6,000sq m casino; an all-weather racecourse; a greyhound track and a golf course.

It would also include an underground entertainment centre with a retractable roof capable of holding 15,000 people which would be “the rural equivalent of Dublin’s 02 complex”.

Mr O’Connell said Ireland’s gambling laws were “outdated” and that the Department of Justice was broadly in support of the plans” for the casino.

The site, which is located off the M8 Dublin-Cork motorway, would also feature a full-size replica of the White House in Washington as “a memorial to James Hoban”, the 18th-century Irish architect from Co Kilkenny who emigrated to the US and won a competition to design the president’s residence.

The “Tipperary White House” would be used as “a banqueting facility” and also to host wedding receptions. A chapel is to be built in the grounds which will have parking for up to 8,000 cars and “aerial access” via a large heliport.

The existing racecourse at Thurles is to be closed when the new facility is built. The project claims to have the backing of Horse Racing Ireland.

Source: IrishTimes Link