Traveller project site in Hollyhill gets Garda security
A senior Garda spokesman confirmed that gardaí are on duty day and night at the Traveller-specific group housing project in Hollyhill, on the northside of Cork City, to ensure the building work advances without incident.
But he said the deployment of uniformed officers at the Cork City Council project has had no additional impact on the area’s policing budget.
It is understood the city council and the builder are making a contribution towards the security costs but City Hall was not able to provide a breakdown of those costs last night.
The new Traveller housing scheme is being developed by the council alongside its official St Anthony’s Park halting site near Apple computer’s European headquarters.
Work on the project started last July. Gardaí were deployed on site shortly after claims of threats and intimidation directed at construction workers and certain city council officials.
There are 12 lease holders in the dated halting site’s 12 bays with around 70 individuals in total — 10 family groups including just over 30 children — living on the site.
The new scheme will have 16 units — nine bays and seven houses. All the housing units are bungalows ranging in size from one-bedroom to four-bedroom properties. They will each have fitted kitchens and an extractor fan, with fitted wardrobes in the bedrooms.
Shelved storage areas will be provided in the welfare units on the bays.
Chrissie O’Sullivan of the Traveller Visibility Group (TVG), which represents families on the halting site, said she has no knowledge of threats or intimidation being made and insisted that there has been no interference to work on the site.
“We did raise the issue of gardaí on the building site at meetings of the city’s inter-agency Traveller consultative group but we never got an answer,” she said.
“This is not normal procedure. We don’t know why it was necessary. Whether there is a perceived threat or not, the fact is that no incident has occurred on the site.”
She also dismissed rumours that some of the families living in the existing halting site are refusing to relocate to the new housing development, and are “holding out” for payments or inducements from Apple to encourage them to move to the new scheme.
Ms O’Sullivan said: “There is no truth to suggestions that families are holding out... People who have been offered houses are anxious to move across.
“To the best of my knowledge, no-one has refused housing there yet because the full allocation hasn’t been made yet. We are confident that all units will be filled.”
A council spokesperson said all units are close to completion: “The city council extensively engaged with the current residents of the St Anthony’s halting site before and during the design phase of the new group housing scheme... This has continued through the construction phase.”
It is hoped the new housing scheme will be fully occupied in early June.
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