Waterford councillors have approved a 5-home traveller housing development on the Green Road.
The decision was made at the September Metropolitan District Meeting of Waterford City & County Council, after two workshops were previously held on the matter.
The site is adjacent to an existing Waterford City & County Council-owned Traveller accommodation site. It is intended that the proposed new dwelling units would be occupied by the extended family of the existing Traveller accommodation units at this location.
The site is located at the bottom of the hill rising up to Ballybeg Drive and is currently open and undeveloped. There was a previous Part 8 application on the site which in September of last year. However, that proposal was withdrawn due to complaints by residents stating that they were unaware of the proposal.
Despite the approval of the site, many councillors still voiced reservations.
Fine Gael Councillor Frank Quinlan told the meeting that many of the residents in the area have been kept up at night by loud music among other inconveniences for the past 18 months.
He warned that the site cannot become 'like Carrickpheirish'. He called for a 'three strikes, you're out' policy to be adopted.
"I am in favour of this. It will clean up the area, it is badly needed of a big clean up. I do have reservations regarding what's going to go in there after it's built. As I said, the likes of Carrickpheirish - they're a law onto themselves. They don't care. They do what they want. They think they're untouchable. No one will say anything or do anything about them. There has to be rules. Three strikes and you're out if you don't abide by the rules of the Council."
Cllr. Quinlan made the suggestion that there were 52 objections to the development, to which Green Party Councillor Susan Gallagher reminded that they were 52 observations. She noted this, as she made one of the observations herself.
"It says there were 52 public observations. They were not all objections. I know for certain one of them wasn't - that's because I wrote it. I clearly wrote in my observation that I was in favour of it [the development] - I just asked a question about drainage. It's not true to say that everybody was against it. I think we need to watch how we discuss this as well. We're talking about a very marginalised group of people."
Cllr. Quinlan said regardless of the development, illegal encampments are going nowhere.
"Illegal encampments of the five traveller families that are down there at the moment, are going nowhere. By voting for the Part 8, it will clean up the area - but there are major questions. Cllr. Mary Roche pointed it out. All along the green road, it's probably four hundred yards long. Any amount of caravans could be parked along that road, after the five house development is built."
Cllr. Roche queried what can be done to remove illegal encampments immediately, while also calling upon the local authority to make particular commitments in the standard of management at the site. Green Party Councillor Jody Power voiced concerns regarding animals.
"You tell us there's going to be no animals allowed on the site. I just want to know, do any of the people currently living on the site own animals? If so, what's going to happen with those?".
Cllr. Quinlan made a suggestion on how tensions could be alleviated.
"If there was a road leading up onto the Ballybeg Road, and block off the Green Road altogether - I think it would avoid a lot of hassle down the line when this Part 8 is developed and built."
