Plan for refugee centre’s revamp
REVEALED: New accommodation units plan at Globe House direct provision centre on Chapel Hill
BRIDGESTOCK Care Ltd, the company which runs the Globe House centre for asylum seekers in Sligo town, has given notice that it intends to apply for planning permission for development in the grounds at Chapel Hill. The planning notice states that the development will consist of the provision of a total of 64 accommodation units in five separate blocks.
A PLAN for a major development of new accommodation units at Globe House direct provision centre in Sligo town has been revealed. Bridgestock Care Ltd, the company which runs the centre for asylum seekers, has given notice that it intends to apply for planning permission for the development in the grounds of Globe House at Chapel Hill.
The planning notice states that the development will consist of the provision of a total of 64 accommodation units in five separate blocks.
There will be two accommodation blocks with eight three-bedroom units in each and three blocks with 16 two-bedroom units in each. Additional works will include landscaping, provision of play areas and providing 204 car parking spaces. It is also proposed to have a new main entrance to the site.
The notice states that all works will take place within the curtilage of a protected structure, which would be the present Globe House building.
It was formerly for many years the Convent of Mercy, home to the nuns who established Our Lady of Mercy primary and secondary schools.
The building, which was previously called St Patrick’s Convent of Mercy, was built around 1850. In the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage it is described as “a fine example of mid-nineteenth century church-commissioned architecture”. It has been in use as a residential centre for refugees for around 20 years and has a capacity to accommodate 218 people.
Bridgestock Care, which has its office in Roscommon, describes itself as “an award winning and leading Irish care services provider with over 20 years experience in both the public and private sector at home and abroad”.
It also states that it “has over 20 years’ experience in the care sector having looked after the needs of tens of thousands of refugees and asylum seekers from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds, across multi locations in the UK, Ireland and more recently mainland Europe”.