Council grants permission for Midlands Hospice project on Arden Lane
Offaly County Council has granted planning permission for the constuction of a Level 3 hospice for the Midlands on a site at Arden Lane in Tullamore.
The decision, which issued on New Year's Eve, December 31, is subject to 15 planning conditions, details of which were not available on the planning file at time of writing.
The decision follows a landmark decision of all 19 elected members of Offaly County Council at their meeting on December 15 last to vote in favour of a proposal by the leader of the Fianna Fail grouping, Cllr Peter Ormond, to amend the Offaly County Development Plan 2021-2027 to facilitiate the development of the hospice.
The HSE submitted a planning application for a 20-bed hospice on a site at Arden Lane in April of this year, with council planners seeking further information on the project a month later, and then seeking clarification on the further information in October.
The planning application attracted a large number of submissions, including from the Laois and North Westmeath hospice groups, both of whom expressed their strong support for the construction of the hospice on the Arden Lane site.
A submission lodged with the Offaly planning authority in May of last year on behalf of Offaly Hospice Foundation, stated that it “cannot support” the building of a Specialist Palliative Care Unit for the Midlands region on the Arden Lane site and urged Offaly County Council to refuse planning permission for the health facility at the proposed location.
While the charity welcomed the commitment by the HSE to finally commission a hospice for the region, Offaly Hospice Foundation said it cannot support the location of the facility on “unzoned and remote lands, distant from medical and community facilities.” The submission argued that another site “within the curtilage of the Regional Hospital” had been identified for the hospice and added that it is “one which has been thoroughly tested against all the parameters for same.”