Dunnes Stores seeks permission to create urban farm in Cork
The farm will be located on lands immediately south of the Ballyvolane Shopping Centre. Picture: Damian Coleman
Dunnes Stores has lodged a planning application seeking permission to create an urban farm in Cork.
An application has been lodged under the name of Dunnes' company Better Value Unlimited Company for the development, which will be located on lands immediately south of the Ballyvolane Shopping Centre.
Bordered by the Ballyhooly Road and the North Ring Road, the 1.42-hectare site would be repurposed as an urban farm focused on market gardening, agroforestry, and educational activities.
Lands north of the Glen River will be used for market gardening — the cultivation of fruits and vegetables — and will include a polytunnel, a repurposed shipping container to be used as a canteen and toilet, and crop growing areas.
To the south of the river an Agroforestry System is proposed, comprised of trees with understorey crops of fruit, flowers and vegetables. The trees will be selected to provide crops of fruits.
The development will also include wood chip pathways, a small bridge across the Glen River, landscaping, tree planting, rain harvesting barrels, boundary fencing, a riparian buffer, a set down/collection area within the shopping centre's car park, temporary access from the R614 Ballyhooly Road during construction works and all other associated site development works/services, including a connection to the shopping centre's foul network.
Potable water and electricity will also be provided by the shopping centre.
Elsewhere, Laya Healthcare has applied for permission to make changes to its planned health and wellbeing clinic in East Cork. Laya already has permission to convert a floor of its office building in Little Island into such a clinic.
Now, it has applied for permission to relocate entrances to the building to facilitate this change. New signage and landscaping is also planned.
In Ovens, Co Cork, permission has been granted for the development of a new yoga and wellness centre. The Mind Garden Ltd has been granted permission by Cork County Council for the works at Ballygroman Lower.
The project includes the refurbishment and change of use of existing disused old stone outbuildings from agricultural and domestic use to a yoga and wellness centre, which will comprise of three treatment rooms and an ancillary storage area.
An existing storage container will be removed and a standalone single-storey building to accommodate a yoga studio will be built.
