A plan for a new elderly residential care and nursing facility in the Village area of south Belfast has been approved despite council officials warning the site lies on a flood plain.
At the November meeting of the Belfast City Council Planning Committee, the DUP and Sinn Féin pushed through an application for a care home at the site of the old Broadway Hall and Monarchy Laundry at the end of Donegall Road, Belfast.
This was despite a recommendation from council officers to refuse the application on the basis of flood risk and insufficient parking. In a split chamber, 13 elected members from the DUP, Sinn Féin and one Alliance member voted in favour of the plan, while four Alliance and Green councillors voted against it.
The description of the application is a “proposed specialist nursing and residential care facility comprising approximately 158 beds, day/dining rooms, treatment rooms, staff rooms, office/store rooms, with car parking provision, cycle parking, refuse storage, landscaping, and associated site and access works”.
The site is on land on the former Monarch Laundry site, and the current Broadway Hall Site, at 451 to 457 Donegall Road, right beside the roundabout with the RISE sculpture on the M1.
The site is also close to the area where the Broadway riots erupted in July this year, which saw children as young as seven throwing bricks, bottles, masonry, and petrol bombs at police lines.
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The applicant, Healthcare Ireland Group, of Holywood, said the site was “under-utilised” and was “subject to flashpoint bonfires and antisocial behaviour”.
They also claimed £18.5m would be put back into the local community with the plan, which would create 150 to 180 construction jobs, and 185 full time caring jobs once the building is in operation.
In a letter to the council supporting the application, DUP MLA Edwin Poots said: “I have been liaising with the community and the owner regarding this development, it received wide support from locals after a very well attended community consultation.
“The residents of the Donegall Road recognise that elderly care is important and older people need houses as well as families, couples and single people.”
Tracy Kelly, DUP Councillor for the area, said in her supporting letter: “For many years elderly from the Donegall Road have had to move out of the area, having residential care on their doorstep will give the option to stay. This proposal will ensure vacant land that has been an eyesore in the community for many years is developed.
“Around 200 jobs will also be available for the local community therefore increasing the opportunities for locals residents. For too long this community has been let down with the private sector being the beneficiaries, and it is good to see something for the community for a change.”
The council officer planning report states: “The application site is within the one in 100 year climate change fluvial flood plain. The proposed use is for bespoke accommodation for vulnerable groups for which there is a presumption against within a flood plain.
“A Flood Risk Assessment has been submitted; however, the Stormont Department for Infrastructure Rivers Division has not assessed it given that the proposal is not an exception to the policy. The applicant has submitted a peer review of the assessment which verifies its content and conclusions.
“The applicant has also submitted a statement of the material benefits of the proposal; however, these are not in the planning balance considered to outweigh the policy presumption against accommodation for vulnerable groups within the flood plain.”
It adds: “The application proposes 38 parking spaces which represents a shortfall of 20 when set against the parking standards. The Stormont Department for Infrastructure Roads Division has objected to the application on grounds of insufficient parking.
“It has requested a parking survey which to date has not been provided. The application currently fails to demonstrate there is sufficient parking.”
NI Water also objected on grounds of insufficient waste-water infrastructure.
At the Planning Committee meeting, Alliance Councillor Tara Brooks said she was “really worried” about potential scenarios at the site during a heavy flooding event.
She said: “Say a 92 year old woman at the nursing home has a heart attack? I can see the ambulance can access, just about, but the paramedics have to walk through flood water to get her into the ambulance.”
An agent for the applicant said: “In the entrance from Donegall Road, once within the site, the site is dry, including the area where there would be ambulance pick-up and drop-off. There is dry movement within the site to get to that point.
“There is shallow flooding at Donegall Road, 150ml or less, and in short duration, but that would be passable by emergency services including ambulances. There is no impediment to removing someone in that circumstance.”
Green Councillor Áine Groogan said: “I am nervy, given who the users will be. This application is for a very vulnerable group, which the policy very clearly sets out cannot be accommodated on a flood plain.”