HSE apply to keep physio prefab

THE Health Service Executive has applied for planning permission to retain the prefab building that houses the physiotherapy department on the grounds of Ennis General Hospital.
Earlier this year An Bord Pleanala rejected that this was a strategic infrastructure development, obliging the HSE to make a planning application to the local authority.
HSE Estates West have now applied to Ennis Town Council for permission for the temporary retention of an existing single storey prefabricated building which houses the physiotherapy department. The building is located adjacent to the front entrance of the main hospital building. Permission has also been sought for ancillary and associated works on a site that has buildings listed as Protected Structures.
The existing building was granted planning permission in June 2005 with a condition requiring its removal after three years.
Earlier this year the HSE in a pre-application consultation to An Bord Pleanala asked for confirmation that the development would be considered a strategic infrastructure development. The HSE confirmed to the board that there were no inpatient services within the building.
However, according to an assessment by the board, the new class of health infrastructure in the Planning and Development Act applies to a development comprising or for the purpose of a health care facility providing inpatient services.
David Dunne, assistant director of planning with the board, recommended that the HSE be informed that the proposed development does not fall within the scope of a health care facility providing in patient services and is therefore not a strategic infrastructure development. And he advised that a planning application for the development be made to the local authority.
Ennis Town Council’s planning department is set to make a decision on the development in May.