HSE submits planning application for mental health unit in Carrigaline
Cork 25m The And Cummins Has The Spent A Former Carrigaline, Refurbishment House, Road, B&b, Picture: Larry Of Purchase Glenwood On €1 Hse Co At ballinrea
The HSE has submitted a planning application to change the use of a site in Carrigaline from a guest house to a community residence centre just under a year after Cork County Council issued a warning about “unauthorised development” at the location.
Glenwood House B&B was bought by the HSE for €750,000 with the intention of opening it as a community mental health centre, but it has lain idle for more than 14 months since its purchase.
Garnish House in Cork city is instead housing residents before they are moved to Glenwood. The HSE has spent €1.1m on the rental and cleaning of Garnish House since April 2020.
Following the purchase of Glenwood House, the HSE’s property management was advised by an architect in November 2020 that they would “need planning permission” to convert the property.
A week later, a HSE estates manager told the legal advisers on the sale “the purchase of the property was not subject to planning and so the HSE are satisfied to proceed on the basis of the existing documentation”.
However, in May 2021, Cork County Council issued a warning to the HSE regarding “unauthorised development” which may have taken place.
In its letter, it said the matter could be the subject of an investigation by the council.
The HSE filed a planning application with the council earlier this month, for “minor alterations, change of use of existing single-storey guest house to single-storey HSE community residence and associated site works”.
At a hearing of the Public Accounts Committee earlier this month, the HSE’s national director of estates Jim Curran said that the money spent on the refurbishment of Glenwood to date was “approximately €500,000”.
The €1.25m spent on the purchase and refurbishment of Glenwood to date, along with the €1.1m spent on Garnish House, compares unfavourably to the estimated €145,000 tender for the refurbishment of the State-owned Owenacurra mental health residential facility in Midleton.
This refurbishment never took place and Owenacurra is currently slated for closure.
However, its closure is something strenuously objected to by its residents and their families, while nine of its residents have been offered placements in Carrigaline once Glenwood becomes operational.
Local Green Party councillor Liam Quaide said he had a number of concerns over this sequence of events.
"The patterns of investment in Garnish House, Glenwood, and Owenacurra are remarkably incoherent and contradictory, and raise serious questions about decision-making that affects our most vulnerable service-users,” Mr Quaide said.
Mr Quaide added that local residents in Carrigaline had concerns about a lack of consultation with them by the HSE concerning this development.
Interested parties have until April 7 to make submissions on the planning application for Glenwood, with Cork County Council due to issue a decision on April 28.