Limerick County Council gives go-ahead for nursing home on Adare Manor grounds
PLANS for a two-storey, 60-bedroom nursing home on the grounds of Adare Manor have been approved by Limerick County Council.
However, it remains unclear if construction work will begin in the near future.
Permission has been granted to Adare Partners LP, which lists Adare Manor owner Tom Kane and his wife, Judy, among its company directors, to develop the 2,765 square metre nursing home on the west of the manor grounds.
However, following the shelving of plans to build a private hospital at Adare Manor due to the economic downturn, no start date for the construction of the nursing home has yet been fixed.
Mr Kane was unavailable for comment this week, as he is in the United States.
Planning permission with 21 conditions for the project was granted on August 25. Limerick County Council had previously cited "serious concerns" with parts of the development, including its potential impact on the architectural heritage of the manor grounds, and, in particular, the demesne wall, which is a proposed protected structure.
However following the receipt of further information in July from architects Healy and Partners, the planning department gave the green light to the plans, as "issues of concern have, for the most part, been addressed".
In 2008, plans backed by Mr Kane to build a €70m private hospital and clinic, which was expected to create over 300 jobs, had to be shelved due to the worldwide economic collapse. The hospital was to be managed by Ramsay Health Care, an Australian-based international hospital management group, and was to include 75 in-patient beds and extensive facilities for daycare.
The application for a nursing home was submitted by Adare Partners LP last December. Included in the application were a number of photographs of the planned site and views of it from other parts of the manor grounds, which were intended to show how little effect the development would have on the luxury resort's visual environment.
In the council's final planning report, it was stated that initial concerns that "the scale of the development has the potential to impact negatively (on) the amenities of the Adare Manor demesne architectural area" had largely been addressed.
However, the Council has insisted that the development "must exploit" an existing gap in the demesne wall, which is a proposed protected structure, and the developer must ensure that the wall "shall be protected against damage during the course of the works".
The old wall is considered a "defining component of the boundary between the townlands of Adare and Graigue", the report indicates.
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Tuesday 22 May 2012
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