HSE asked to contribute €1.3m towards costs of roadworks for new Midlands Hospice

The HSE has been asked to contribute almost €1.3 million towards the cost of improving the roads infrastructure to facilitiate the development of the new Midlands Specialist Palliative Care Unit on a site on the Arden Lane in Tullamore.

The Specialist Development Contribution charge is one of the 15 conditions attached by Offaly County Council planners to the grant of planning permission in a decision which issued on New Year's Eve, December 31 last.

The financial contribution which is due to the paid by the HSE to Offaly County Council – amounting to €1,284,846 (incl VAT) – is for the provision of “required upgrade infrastructural works” works to the L-20032 Arden Lane local road. The works are inclusive of roads, footpath, public lighting and storm sewer.

Offaly County Council planners have also stipulated that no development works can commence on the site until “all the necessary road improvement works” are carried out on the L-20032 road and the written approval of the local authority has been received.

Also included among the 15 conditions attached to the planning permission is one requiring the applicants to submit a Site Management Plan, including a Traffic and Transport Management Plan, for the construction works and associated traffic movements, for the written agreement of the planning authority.

The HSE submitted a planning application for a 20-bed hospice on a site at Arden Lane in April of last year, with council planners seeking further information on the project a month later, and then seeking clarification on the further information in October.

On December 15 last, all 19 elected members of Offaly County Council voted in favour of a proposal to amend the Offaly County Development Plan 2021-2027 to facilitate the development of the hospice.