Offaly Hospice Foundation make fresh objection to proposed site for the Midlands Hospice

Offaly Hospice Foundation submitted a new objection to the planning application of the Midlands Regional Hospice on October 22.

The new submission once again urges Offaly County Council to refuse the construction of the new Midlands Regional Hospice at the proposed Arden Lane site in Tullamore.

The proposed development is for a 20 bedroom in-patient hospice with daycare facilities which will serve Offaly, Laois, Longford and Westmeath who are now the only counties in Ireland without a hospice accommodating patients who are nearing the end of their life. 

The latest objection which was submitted by O'Neill Town Planning on behalf of the Offaly Hospice Foundation is in response to the additional information which was put forward on September 15 which the planning authority deemed to be significant on October 14. 

That additional information which was provided by the HSE is being classed as "materially different" to the original application in the new objection by the Offaly Hospice Foundation. 

As stated by the Offaly Hospice Foundation in their objection, they cite the ownership status and permission for the land as major changes. It also points to "the revision of the boundaries to the application site to allow for the omission of the road widening scheme proposed, and the omission of footpaths on the access road to the hospice". 

As a result, the Offaly Hospice Foundation suggests that a revised planning application would be the best way forward in the interests of the public and the process itself. 

As part of the submission, Offaly Hospice Foundation also questioned the process for the site suitability matrix score which was conducted by the HSE in December 2023 to determine which site was a better fit between Arden Lane and Wellwood Health Park.  

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The matrix used a number of factors which awarded Arden Lane with a site suitability score of 84.7 bettering Wellwood's 81 which is used to justify the former as the ideal site for the Midlands Regional Hospice. 

However, according to the objection, the Offaly Hospice Foundation: "expert assessment of the matrix reveals significant issues in both adjudication and scoring process". 

They make the argument that in the criterion of zoning, "Wellwood has the appropriate zoning and gains full marks at 8. The Arden Lane site has no appropriate zoning, and should therefore score 0. Instead Arden Lane receives an inexplicable score of 4". 

The objection also refers to the criterion of co-location for the Midlands Regional Hospital in Tullamore. It explains: "Wellwood has a significant advantage, yet both sides are given equal marks. Even with these small adjustments, Wellwood scores higher than Arden Lane and would have objectively been the site of first choice for the regional hospice". 

The Offaly Hospice Foundation claims that abiding by this metric would have helped in "avoiding many of the contentious planning issues around zoning, access, conflicting land uses and services". 

Another point on the submission details how it was agreed in September 2017 for the hospice to be built on a site that would be adjacent to the Midlands Regional Hospital in Tullamore with the HSE offering a suitable area on the grounds in 2020. 

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This proposal was deemed as "feasible and acceptable to all parties" which led to government funding of €20 million assigned to the facility in September 2022. 

The objection also details that Tullamore Lions Club offered an alternative site on Arden Lane in April of 2023, a decision which the Offaly Hospice Foundation claim wasn't made known to the hospice groups until August 22, 2023.

They write in the objection that plans were effectively abandoned for site 1 as a result, they further claim that if the plans for site 1 were allowed to proceed then "in all likelihood, the Midlands Regional Hospice would effectively be built by now". 

The Offaly Hospice Foundation continues the objection by reiterating that Arden Lane is not the only possible site for the hospice and there are available areas in Wellwood as well as on the grounds of the Midlands Regional Hospital. 

They say that in contrast to Arden Lane, "both sites are not encumbered by planning issues of zoning, access or services and are still available". 

The submission concludes: "There is nothing new in the additional information that should delay the planning authority issuing a notification of decision to refuse planning permission for the proposed development of the grounds set out in the original observation". 

A decision on the planning application for the proposed Midlands Regional Hospice is due on November 11.