Proposals have been drawn up which could see the site of a former Mother and Baby home in Newry – described by one former inhabitant as a “hellhole” – transformed into a major multi-million pound mixed-use development.
Due to scale of the development, a Proposal of Application Notice (PAN) was submitted to submitted to Newry, Mourne and Down District Council in the name of Mr Paul Ward of RICAPA Ltd, the company behind Shelbourne Motors.
The proposals relate to a 19.96 acre site north of 128 Armagh Road and east of the A1 motorway where the site of the Marianvale Mother and Baby Home was located prior to its demolition in the latter half of 2021.
The home opened on the site of the former Good Shepard Convent and admitted many hundreds of women in its almost 30 years of operation.
It’s controversial operations – which saw hundreds of mothers “inhumanely” separated from their babies – were well documented in The Mother’s & Babies and Magdalene Laundries Report, released by the Stormont Executive in 2021.
Photo by Sean Donegan / Newry Man Lost
However, under the proposals now submitted to Council, the site could make way for an expansive commercial development.
Among the scheme proposals, permission is being sought for the construction of a Maxol Petrol Station Forecourt Supermarket and Drive-Thru (which was granted approval as part of a separate application in November 2019) and a coffee house and parking that would each occupy the North East corner of the site and be immediately accessible from the Armagh Road roundabout.
To the Southern-most end of the site plan, a HGV Drivers Services and Information Centre would be positioned including shower and sanitary facilities as well as an HGV Long and Short Stay Park serving 180 vehicles.
Adjacent to this permission is also being sought for a General Industrial Warehouse spanning 2200sqm with associated parking and a multi-storey call centre with associated facilities including under store parking.
Beyond the proposed call centre location lays an existing grave yard, which the plans say will continue to be “maintained and respected in its original location with no adverse change in ground levels”.
Adjacent to the graveyard and positioned beside the proposed HGV Long and Short Stay Park the plans account for a further two-storey commercial building with designated parking to rear.
The proposed site layout
Across from the existing Shelbourne Showroom on the Armagh Road, the plans provide for a “modern medium sized car showroom” fronting the A28, a “light industrial units dual aspect elevation” spanning 1200 sqm in total with associated parking and servicing and a distribution warehouse extending to 40,000 sqft with associated HGV, customer and staff parking.
An in-person drop-in event is scheduled to be held at Canal Court Hotel next month to allow interested parties to view the display boards for the proposal and provide feedback via printed comment cards.
Local elected representatives have all been served with notice of the application and will be invited to this event.
Members of the consultation team will attend the event to answer any questions that local residents and stakeholders may have, and to collect feedback on the proposal.
A leaflet drop of 200m from the edge of the application site will be made providing details of the public event, and inviting members of the public to view the proposals in person or online. Local Councillors will be provided with copies of the public notice at the same time as the leaflet drop.
A website will be provided for the application in accordance with recent legislation. This will be available for public comments for 28 days following the notices in the press.
