Residents concerned over plan for 102 bednursing home

Around 20 residents gathered at the Lagan Valley Island Centre last Tuesday evening where they held a meeting with the council’s Planning Committee Chairman Councillor Ronnie Crawford.

The people, who have lived there for less than three years, said they had no knowledge such a development would be proposed for the area, and concerns were raised that with a large number of children living in the area the high volume of traffic the development would bring could present a huge danger.

Listing some of their objections, residents said: “The access to this development is through a residential area with lots of young children. Is the volume of traffic suitable for the area?

“Nursing homes are not a 9-5 business but require service 24 hours a day. Emergency services such as ambulances and doctors will be up and down the road where some houses/bedrooms are less than 10m from the road. Staff and visitors’ vehicles will also use the road.”

One local resident, Jennifer Hanley said: “The meeting went well and the residents are all supporting each other in this.

“We are not so much against the home, but having access through Lady Wallace Drive will change the environment of the area with service vehicles travelling through here. Is there really a need for another huge nursing home in Lisburn?

“There is a strong feeling amongst residents - quite a few of us have children and grandchildren.”

The applicants for the development, North Lisburn Development Consortium Ltd, have estimated there will be some 37 full-time staff and 12 part-time staff working per shift. However, following the meeting Councillor Crawford was optimistic that any issues could be resolved if Roads Service are able to accept access to the site coming off the main road, rather than through the residential area. Mr Crawford, who visited the site of the proposed development on Wednesday, said: “The real problem is the road issue. At the moment they want to use Lady Wallace Drive as a means of access, I have spoken to the architect and asked him to try to get Roads Service, who haven’t looked at it yet, to see if access can be moved onto the main road.

“The location isn’t so much of a problem as it is set down into a hollow so it would not dominate residents, but the real bugbear is that there was no mention of this going up. Residents have only been there around two years and some only signed their completion at the end of last year. The problem now is there is going to be 18 months to two years of lorries going up and down the street and there is a risk to children in the area.

“There is also a bit of a hill at Lady Wallace Drive and during the snow people had to leave their cars at the top of the hill. There will be staff, doctors, physiotherapists and people to entertain residents going into the home, so there could be a big problem in the frost and snow, but I am hopeful it could go ahead if Roads Service agree to move the access.”