Tipperary County Council’s decision to block planning for home for teenagers in care is appealed
An appeal has been lodged against a Tipperary County Council decision to refuse planning permission for a proposed care home for teenagers in state care.
Compass Child and Family Services CLG had applied to Tipperary County Council to change the use of a home at Gortussa, Dundrum from residential to a care in the community dwelling house for children in care.
The house would have had space for four minors, as well as nine social care workers, and would be designed to “replicate a domestic home as closely as possible,” according to planning documents.
However, earlier this year, Tipperary County Council refused planning permission for the change of use due to concerns about the site that the house sits on.
"The application site is removed from a designated settlement (0.7km from Dundrum) and is on lands designated as ‘open countryside’,” Tipperary County Council planners said.
Now, agents acting on behalf of Compass Child and Family Services have appealed the council’s decision to An Coimisiún Pleanála (formerly An Bord Pleanála), saying that the local authority have “mischaracterised” the proposed use of the site.
Agents for Compass said that they feel that the council “erred in characterising the proposed use as a form of institutional healthcare use”.
"In reality, the development involves the continued use of an existing domestic dwelling, to provide accommodation for up to four children in care, supported by qualified social care staff.
"The model of care is explicitly family-style and non-institutional; the dwelling remains a shared living space where staff and children cook, eat, relax and undertake household routines together,” the appeal says.
Institutional-style residences, such as nursing homes and hospitals operate on a “fundamentally different” model, they added.
The home for children in the care system aims to create a “home environment, not a healthcare facility”.
Compass Child and Family Services is a charity offering out of home care arrangements for children in the care of the state, with homes in Tipperary town, Ballina and Tralee in county Kerry.
An Coimisiún Pleanála is expected to decide on the appeal by January 29.