Stock photo: Kall/Pexels.
LIMERICK parents are expressing concern over plans to convert a long-established créche and former primary school in Mungret into a multi-storey apartment block.
Planning permission was submitted to Limerick City and County Council by Suarte Limited for the construction of apartments at Tiny Friends Crèche in the Old Girls’ School building in Baunacloka.
Healy Partners Architects on Glentworth Street delivered an architectural design statement as part of the proposed plans.
The crèche currently has 14 full-time staff and 82 children ranging in age from one-year through to pre-school and after-school.
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One mother and member of the Tiny Friends Parents Association has a 16-month-old son who attends the crèche and says she was shocked to learn of these plans.
“The staff and parents only became aware of the application after it was posted on our local residents’ Facebook page” earlier this month, she said. The following day, she claims that “parents and staff were informed by the business owner that children’s places are secure for the next 12 months”.
“But there remains considerable uncertainty about what happens after that and if the crèche will continue to be viable over those 12 months if staff decide to leave to find other employment,” the concerned mother told the Limerick Post.
She claims that the way in which the news was announced has “caused particular distress among parents and staff”.
“For parents who have entrusted their children to Tiny Friends and planned their childcare around the service for years to come, and long-term loyal staff, some of whom have worked there for 10/12 years, learning of a proposal to convert the crèche into apartments in this way has been deeply upsetting.”
In response to these claims, the owner of Tiny Friends told the Limerick Post that the crèche manager is retiring due to personal, health, and family reasons.
The owner added that any closure of the crèche would not take place until next June at the earliest.
The site is a protected structure and is recorded on the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage.
“The crèche building itself is being retained. It’s being converted internally to five apartments … It’s not being knocked down or built on. It is just the interior that will be changed to accommodate from a crèche to apartments,” the owner said.
There will be a total of five apartments as well as a separate development on the same site to build 13 apartments.
When asked if parents were formally notified of these plans and if they were aware of the announcement made on social media, the owner said: “I don’t know anything about that, I don’t know, I can’t comment on that, I don’t know what dialogue was had.”
However the owner did say that the manager has had some discussions with staff, saying they share a “very close relationship with the staff who have become very good friends of ours”.
When asked if the crèche could remain open under new management, the owner said that other members of the family-run business were not interested in taking the crèche over.
The decision to convert the crèche into apartments came after the manager’s decision to retire, the owner explained.
Parents with children attending the school say the move has caused considerable worry with long waiting lists for other crèches.
“Parents are ringing around to other crèches but there’s waiting lists of two years, it’s impossible to find somewhere. Childminders are full as well so it’s a big worry,” the Limerick mother explained.
“We are not opposed to more housing but you can’t just keep building and consider that it’ll be a lot of young families buying them and what goes hand in hand with that is childcare and schools,” the mother added.
Parents have also launched an online petition on Change.org which at the time of going to print garnered 250 signatures.
Fianna Fáil TD for Limerick, Willie O’Dea, also expressed his concerns about the proposed plans.
“There is huge concern that Tiny Friends crèche will be lost to the community if this planning application gets the go ahead,” Deputy O’Dea said.
“Apart from the fact that what is proposed is not in keeping with this building, the childcare facility has 84 children in attendance and over 100 on a waiting list.”
Deputy O’Dea added: “There is already a gross shortage of childcare places in the area and throughout Limerick, so the last thing we want to do is to force a well-run and popular crèche to close. On top of this, staff will obviously lose their jobs.”
He is now calling on the Minister for Children, Norma Foley, who as Minister has a right to object to any plans that may result in a loss of childcare places.
Objections to the plans have also been lodged by concerned parents as well as Labour TD for Limerick, Conor Sheehan, who said that “urban development must not come at the expense of social infrastructure”, adding that under the Limerick Development Plan there is a mandate for the protection and retention of essential community services.
A decision on the proposed plans, according to the council website, is expected in mid-August.
