Controversy over Colonel’s Wood

Controversy over Colonel’s Wood


Áine Ryan

A ROW over the proposed development of a large nursing home at the Westport suburb of Knockranny erupted in Westport Town Council chamber last week with Town Manager Peter Hynes warning councillors they could ‘prejudice’ the application. This followed a categoric verdict of ‘No’ to the project by up to 40 local residents who had met earlier in the week to discuss the controversial proposal.
The residents, from Knockranny and Buckwaria, will now formally object to the planning application for the 86-bedroom nursing home to be situated at Colonel’s Wood, on lands owned by semi-state forestry body, Coillte.
Speaking at last week’s town council meeting, Independent Cllr Martin Keane unconditionally gave the development the thumbs-down.
“I will not support this application for an 86-bedroom nursing home or for any building going up on these lands,” Cllr Keane said.
His concerns were echoed by Fianna FΡil’s Cllr Brendan Mulroy who stressed that it was not a suitable location to build the home.
“I proposed from day one that this area be left [designated] as woodland. The residents will be submitting their objection to the town council,” Cllr Mulroy said.
Intervening, Peter Hynes warned that, given the ‘live’ status of the application, the councillors were ‘getting very close to being prejudicial’. This intervention led to a heated debate about the restrictions of Better Local Government, as cited by Cllr Tereasa McGuire.
“This is nothing to do with Better Local Government. There can be no comment on live cases. When it gets into an area where it may prejudice the decisions, it leaves the council open to a claim. I’m not trying to gag anyone,” Peter Hynes said.
Responding, Cllr Mulroy observed: “Surely it is our democratic right to express our views. I’m only expressing my opinion in supporting these people.”
Urging that councillors move on with the agenda, Cathaoirleach Myles Staunton said the issue could be discussed again at a dedicated meeting on the Draft Development Plan to be held on Thursday next, January 21, in the council chamber.

Residents’ rally
Almost 40 residents of Knockranny and Buckwaria are set to seek an urgent meeting with Westport Town Councillors to both outline their concerns and to underline the importance of maintaining Colonel’s Wood as a unique in-town woodland area which can be enjoyed by the entire community of Westport.
Their joint objection observes that ‘the road into the proposed development is completely inadequate for the volume of traffic which can be expected with a nursing home that will be three times the size of The MacBride Home.  The residents also claim that the construction would put an excessive burden on already over-stretched services such as sewerage and water.   
“The planning application does not deal with these basic infrastructural deficiencies in any substantive way,”  said well-known resident Mary Carr, who chaired the special meeting. Mary Carr also said ‘the proposal would damage the natural environment of the town and would have an immediate negative impact on the flora and fauna, birds and wildlife of the wood’.
“Colonel’s Wood provides a backdrop to the town of Westport and adds greatly to the visual beauty of the town. Deforesting five acres at its highest point would be a visual eye-sore and would scar the town’s natural horizon,” Mary Carr also said.
“This wood is one of the natural lungs of Westport. Building on it will reduce the quality of the environment for the people of Westport and for visiting tourists. We are urging the Town Council to take over this woodland so that its unique and natural character can be maintained,” she continued.
A number of residents also commented on the fact that ‘the proposal represented very bad value for public money’. 
Apparently, nursing homes are one of the very few areas where you can still claim capital allowances. An investor who puts €100,000 into a nursing home project can typically get capital allowances of around €230,000 over a seven-year period. it was also stressed at the meeting that if the plan is granted, state land will be used for purely private gain without any regard for social dividend, they pointed out. 
Some Knockranny residents will also urge councillors not to continue with the Celtic Tiger model of aiding private wealth at the expense of public need.

Coillte application
During December last Coillte Teoranta applied to Westport Town Council to construct an 86-bedroom nursing home in lands it owns at Colonel’s Wood at Knockranny, in suburban Westport.
According to the application, the facility will consist of communal spaces, treatment rooms, dining rooms and a kitchen. It would also consist of sanitary accommodation, staff facilities, administration areas and ancillary services, including a service road and a  yard.
It is also proposed that the nursing home development will consist of a gated vehicular and pedestrian access, a split-level car park with 76 spaces and a ten-space surface carpark.
Town Manager, Peter Hynes’s recommends in the Draft Development Plan that  zoning of Colonel’s Wood be amended to ‘K Woodland’  as well as a new objective, proposed by the councillors, which stipulates that ‘any development would be subject to a design brief agreed by the elected members, following a period of public consultation’.  
Recognising that the Colonel’s Wood ‘provides an attractive setting for the town’ it also ‘equally recognised that the woodlands through the woodland management and sensitive development could provide woodland amenities, and enhanced connectivity for the town as a whole’, the Manager’s Report on the draft plan states. 
“It should be noted that the woodland is in fact a commercially planted area in the ownership of Coillte, a commercial semi-state body. It is not in the gift of Mayo County Council or Westport Town Council to carry out or to direct the specific development of these lands,” it continues.