Call for Cork site to be included in new Traveller accommodation plan
The controversial site on the northside of Cork city, where a massive illegal dump clean-up is underway alongside an overcrowded Traveller halting site, must be included in a major new Traveller accommodation plan.
The call came last night from Sinn Fein's Cllr Mick Nugent, who chairs the Traveller Consultative Committee, as contractors continued their work to remove an estimated 200 tonnes of illegally dumped rubbish from the Ellis’s Yard site.
The council-owned landbank is located next to the council’s overcrowded Spring Lane halting site where living conditions have been described as appalling.
The site, originally designed for less than a dozen families, is now home to more than 30, many of whom live in an authorised extension of the site.
In 2011, city councillors voted against extending the halting site into the Ellis’s Yard site.
The yard has been plagued with illegal dumping over the years, with clean-ups costing €570,000 and firefighters tasked to almost 100 fires there, last year alone.
Given that the site is zoned for Traveller accommodation in the 2015-2021 City Development Plan, Mr Nugent said it must be included in ongoing discussions about a new five-year Traveller accommodation plan.
“The site must be considered as one of the options to help address the overcrowding issues affecting the 35 families on the Spring Lane halting site,” he said.
The draft plan could be ready for public consultation before the summer.
But it’s understood that housing - whether it’s social or Traveller specific - is not being considered for the site once it’s cleared.
Talks between city officials and, as yet, unidentified stakeholders on the future of the landbank, which is also close to Glen sports pitches, are at an advanced stage.
It is understood that whatever is proposed, it will deliver substantial community gain.
City councillors, who will be briefed once the long-term strategy is finalised, will have to agree to the plan, and may also have to support a variation to the city development plan before it can proceed.
The Traveller Visibility Group (TVG), which represents residents on the adjoining halting site, was not available for comment yesterday.
But Mr Nugent said the TVG published a housing manifesto in 2016 which included housing options on Ellis’s Yard as one of several possible solutions.
And while asserting there is no excuse for illegal dumping, wherever it comes from, he said the council must enhance its waste collection arrangements at the halting site where skips are delivered twice a week.
Contractors moved on to Ellis’s Yard on Wednesday to begin removing the vast quantities of rubbish which have been dumped on the site over the last year or so.
It includes up to 40 tonnes of steel and metal and five tonnes of asbestos. It is expected to take up to two weeks to complete at a cost of at least €53,000.
The site will then be secured with new fencing and CCTV cameras in a bid to deter future dumping.
Local residents who have welcomed the clean-up have called however for a quick decision on the long-term future of the site.
Meanwhile, a housing rally will take place outside City Hall on March 11 organised by the Raise the Roof movement which is calling for public housing construction and the creation of a legal right to housing.
