Councillors to vote on Bower project rezoning in July

Westmeath county councillors are expected to vote at their monthly meeting in July whether or not to contravene their own development plan to pave the way for planning approval of a major residential project on the site of the former Bower convent (pictured right).

Chief Executive Pat Gallagher will present a report following public consultation with an overall recommendation at the meeting on July 19 before a formal vote takes place. The material contravention is expected to be advertised shortly by the council seeking public comment, the results of which will feed into the report presented to the members of the council.

Last month, a decision had been due on Wincove Land Ltd's revised plans for 99 units, mainly apartments, on the prominent hilltop site overlooking Athlone. However, that was put on hold pending the material contravention process to alter the zoning for residential use.

According to a planning report on file, the site is zoned educational, open space and infrastructural, and would require a material contravention to alter the zoning for residential use. The zoning is also referred to as education, community and institutional in the planning documents.

The revised plans by the firm linked to the Hanly Group in Roscommon could see a change of use of the listed convent building, which dates back to the 1880s, and a later extension from the 1960s, to house a sizeable development of over 99 units, a mix of apartments and three townhouses, a library and a creche at Aghecocora, Lower Road.

In a bid to address earlier concerns about the height of the apartment blocks and the overall design of the scheme, the applicant reduced the buildings to four storeys hight, and moved some of the apartments to the western side of the site following a further information request by the local authority.

A planned library will include a museum celebrating the legacy of the La Sainte Union Sisters, the order who operated the boarding school for generations.