Nazareth House on Bishop Street.
Residents in the Bishop Street area of Derry are outraged at plans to replace the former Nazareth House residential care home with a development that will include a facility for those suffering from alcohol dependence.
The home – which was run by the Sisters of Nazareth for more than 100 years and which closed last year – is up for sale with an asking price of around £750,000.
Oaklee Housing is considering buying the 1.65 acres site – which includes the former nursing home, a chapel and a three-bedroom bungalow – to develop social housing and a 24-bed alcohol dependency unit.
The social housing development comprises 16 two-bedroom houses, four three-bedroom houses and six two-bedroom apartments.
A public consultation on the proposals is due to take place at 5.30pm tomorrow in the Gasyard Centre in the Bogside.
However, residents have hit out at the proposed development which is adjoined to Nazareth House Primary School and directly opposite Lumen Christi College.
They are also angered at only being given two days notice about the meeting.
One woman, a mother of two young children aged three and seven who lives next to Nazareth House, described the proposals as “a disgrace.”
She added: “It is not about exclusion but the simple fact that there is a school opposite it and one attached to it.
“I’m all for having a detox or drop-in place for people with addictions but this is not the place. I simply don’t want to be bringing up my children up living right beside this.”
Another said it was the “wrong place for such a unit.”
She added: “There is a primary school next door and a secondary school opposite. Disgrace that people only learning about the meeting now, two days befoe it happens.”
Another said: “Bishop Street is a residential area and has a lot of elderly people as well as families. This just isn’t a suitable location.”
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