Concern over plans for 57-bed nursing home at site cllrs claim is prone to flooding

Plans for a 57-bedoomed nursing home in a two and three-storey building at Hunters Lane in Ashbourne came before a meeting of Meath County Council when councillors considered and voted on a proposed material contravention of the county development plan. Under law there are special circumstances in which planning permission can be granted but there was controversy over the proposal because some councillors claimed the particular site for the development was prone to flooding.

Council senior planning official Padraig Maguire told councillors that this was a developer – Remcoll Capital Ltd - who was looking to develop a nursing home on land which did not have the appropriate zoning. The land had been the subject of a High Court judicial review against the most recent development plan and the material contravention was recommended for acceptance by the council executive. Mr Maguire said that the land had been the subject of a flood risk assessment and it was found that the particular land was subject to flooding like other lands in Ashbourne.

He said the council and the Office of Public Works had been looking at these lands to see how flooding risk could be alleviated. The Ashbourne flood relief scheme was almost completed and the risk of flooding on the proposed nursing home site had been “significantly reduced”.

Another official, Des Foley, told councillors that in July 2022 a progress report had been brought before the council in relation to five judicial reviews of the proposed development plan and they had decided to settle the matter in this particular case on the basis that a planning application could be considered. It would be a material contravention of the development plan subject to the flood relief work.

Independent Cllr Joe Bonner said that while he welcomed the proposal for a new nursing home in Ashbourne he felt it was “in the wrong place” . Althougha flood relief scheme was substantially concluded, the position was that on 15th July last the road here had been closed due to flooding.

Between July and the present day the road was still flooding. In addition, six to eight houses less than 300 metres downstream had pumps in their gardens to remove excess water. He felt that the planning application was “previous and is rushed”. He didn’t want to stand in the way of progress but he had a responsibility to his constituents, he said.

He was supported by Fine Gael Cllr Paddy Meade who said that he had visited the site and had obtained legal advice. He said he was very concerned that he had seen flooding in that area since the flooding relief works had been carried out. This had left him “highly concerned”.

Social Democrat Cllr Ronan Moore said his fear was that down the line the benchmarks we use now to assess flood risk might not be appropriate in the future. He said it would be remiss of him not to listen to the advice of the senior planners in the room. If Mr Maguire, the most senior planning official present, was saying the site did not hold any specific flood risk, he would find it hard to disagree with him.

Fine Gael Cllr Alan Tobin said he felt the matter would not have been brought before the councillors unless David Keyes, engineer in charge of flood risk assessment, was not satisfied that the €8.5m spent on flood risk in Ashbourne was to his satisfaction and would not create a flood risk in future. In relation to claims by some councillors that the road near the site had been flooded, he said the flooding had occurred because rains on it had been blocked.

A roll call vote was taken on the material contravention with 28 votes in favour to six against; four abstentions and two members absent, meaning that as the three-quarters majority wasn't reached, the motion failed.

** In the printed version of this story in this week's Meath Chronicle, we inadvertently stated that on the roll call vote, planning permission was agreed by 28 votes to six with four abstentions and two members absent.