Delgany’s Old HSE Building Gets Residential Planning Approval

Coulda been a community contender…

or quite a few years, the old HSE building in Delgany had been earmarked as a possible heritage centre for the village.

The simple idea being, hey, the HSE would transfer the vacant building to Wicklow County Council, and after a little fairy dust, Delgany would have its very own HQ for all things historic and heritagey.

Only the building popped up last April on the DNG website, this two-storey building of 178m2 coming with a price tag of €295,000.

When we got in touch at the time with Michael Nicholson from Wicklow County Council’s Community Development, he explained, “That particular building will be expensive to buy and will require significant further investment to turn it into anything usable, as it has sat idle for many, many years. Wicklow County Council is not in a position, financially, to either buy or renovate this building, regrettably.”

Local TD Jennifer Whitmore – who had long championed the transfer of the HSE building to a heritage centre – told us back then, “To hear that the HSE has put this site on the market is very disappointing.

“It would be a shame if this building, right in the centre of Delgany, was to leave public ownership. Delgany needs a community hub, especially given the large growth in population. I will raise this with the Minister For Health and the Council.”

After the property sold, we got in touch with DNG in Greystones to find out who had bought it, and why, but they were no help whatsoever. And diligently so. Then, a new sign popped up, this time for an auction, by bidx1.com. A few days later, the property on their website with a guide price of €250,000 – eventually selling, we’re told by two cleaver Treavors, for €403,000.

That the old Carmelite church has now been approved as a community centre in a €2m deal may have swayed Wicklow County Council away from splashing the cash here, of course, and so, in January, one Robert Wang applied for change of use, to 4 residential rentals.

Application no.2660010 reads…

1. change of use from dis-used health centre to residential rentals comprising 3 No. ground floor short-term rental units and 1 No. first floor Long-term rental unit. 2. internal and external alterations. 3. connection to all public services. 4. all necessary ancillary works to facilitate this development (property is a protected structure).

Delgany 1932

And, sure agus begorrah, changing that to 2 long-term rentals and one short-term let, Robert the Rebuilder (who also owns the new Dragon House takeaway in Kilcoole), got his planning, with four standard-issue conditions, all available to check out over on the Wicklow Planning site here.

That Donard, with a population of less than 200, can secure their old HSE building with a little help from Wicklow County Council earlier this month – even though they already have a community centre – makes this turn of events particularly galling.

Has Delgany not generated quite enough housing revenue to cover its own community alongside financing the rest of the county’s villages and towns…?