A €20million cemetery with more than 8,000 burial plots in the grounds of the Citywest hotel complex in Dublin has been granted planning permission.
An Bord Pleanála upheld the South Dublin County Council decision to approve the development of the cemetery on a portion of the former 18-hole golf course at the Citywest Hotel and Convention Centre in Saggart, Co Dublin.
However, the board stipulated that the laying of remains of the dead in the cemetery’s reception building would be prohibited.
It rejected an appeal by a local resident who claimed the cemetery was ‘unsustainable, unnecessary and unviable’ due to a dramatic reduction in the demand for burials in Dublin.
The resident, Colm McGrath, called the proposal ‘a waste of space’ due to estimates that burials account for only 30% of all funerals in Dublin because of the growing popularity of cremation. He claimed the existing cemetery in Saggart has an average of one burial per month.
He claimed the Saggart community deserved more imaginative development proposals from the owners of what is one of the largest hotels in Europe.
Mr McGrath’s views were supported by Rathcoole Community Council.
The application for planning permission for the cemetery was submitted by Cape Wrath Hotel – an unlimited company affiliated to Citywest’s owners, Tetrarch Capital.
The cemetery, to be situated on part of the former golf course which closed in 2020, will have 8,074 burial plots and columbarium walls, as well as a reception building with space for 60 seated guests and views of a lake on a 13.45-hectare site.
Cape Wrath Hotel also plans to provide a new access from Garter’s Lane to the N7 with two access points to serve the proposed cemetery.
The company had previously sought permission in 2021 to develop the site as a community sports and civic campus including a golf driving range, playing pitches and floodlit tennis courts, as well as a multisport building with indoor courts, playground facilities and meeting rooms, but it did not complete the planning process for that.
Earlier this year, Cape Wrath Hotel got planning permission for the development of a solar farm on another part of the former golf course at Citywest, on a 6.8-hectare site.
The company said the development of a cemetery would provide a significant quantum of burial plots to serve communities in the Saggart, Rathcoole and Fortunestown area, together with a wide range of burial types that would cater for people of all beliefs.
It said the project would also involve extensive tree planting with the cemetery being designed to reflect the fairway character of the site’s recent use as a golf course through a series of interconnected ‘parkland’ areas.
The hotel’s owners said the cemetery would be managed and maintained by a third-party operator, not yet identified.
Subject to compliance with various planning conditions, An Bord Pleanála said the cemetery would not seriously injure the residential or visual amenities of the area.
The board said the project was also acceptable in terms of the safety and convenience of pedestrians and other road users, as well as not being prejudicial to public health. In addition, it claimed the cemetery would ‘safeguard the ecological value of the site’.
The board said the planning condition that prohibits the laying out of remains in the reception building was to ensure compliance with the site’s zoning objective which does not permit ‘a funeral home’.
Cape Wrath Hotel had informed both the board and the local council that it intended to use the building for services and as a gathering space prior to burial or interment services at the designated traditional burial plots or columbarium walls.
However, both planning authorities claimed such a proposed use of the reception building would fall within the definition of a funeral home.
Although the company had cited the Cemeteries Clauses Act 1847, which allows the owner of a cemetery to build chapels for the performance of burials on its lands, South Dublin County Council said the legislation did not override the site’s zoning objective.
Cape Wrath Hotel was paid €53.7million last year by the Department of Integration to provide accommodation to Ukrainian refugees and international protection applicants at the 764-bed hotel in Citywest.
