A £40m community treatment and care centre is set to be granted for planning approval in Newry, after years of delays.
The proposal has been listed on the agenda for Newry, Mourne and Down District Council's planning committee’s 11 December meeting. This is following a plea from Southern Health and Social Care Trust Chief Executive Shane Devlin, after planners recommended that the application be refused in October.
The hub was originally announced to be built in 2013 by the then Health Minister, Edwin Poots, and it was predicted to open in 2016. It was to be built on the site of the old Abbey primary and grammar schools’ playing fields and was to be developed by the firm, O’Hare and McGovern.
However, hundreds of vehicles were expected to attend the facility on a daily basis and the proposed access point was too narrow; it would have to be shared with an adjoining home.
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BBC News NI reported that the project developer has now reached an agreement with the homeowner to buy their property, thus allowing for a wider entrance and exit point. However the Southern Trust has not made comment at the time of publication.
Another challenge though in developing the healthcare hub is securing agreement from GPs to leave their existing practices and move to the new facility.
The project is just one of a number of transformative developments proposed for Newry city centre.
