VIDEO: Residents seek action over crisis at halting site

Travellers have called for urgent action to resolve serious health and safety issues at an overcrowded halting site which has been branded one of the worst in Ireland.

The residents of the Spring Lane halting site on Cork’s northside have also called for a full review of the city’s new Traveller Accommodation Plan 2014-2018 to deliver a long-term solution to their crisis situation.

In an historic first, they launched a manifesto yesterday which outlines the appalling conditions they have to ensure on the site, including dangerous electrics, and unsanitary conditions.

But it also suggests actions they say could solve the problems, including:

- the renovation of the site’s 10 original bays to a high standard;

- the provision of standard local authority homes in the Ballyvolane or Dublin Hill areas for 10 of the families;

- if these houses can’t be provided, the Travellers called for Traveller specific accommodation such as a halting site or a group housing scheme nearby;

- one council house for one family in the county;

- two Traveller specific accommodation schemes to accommodate 20 families. The document earmarks the neighbouring Ellis’s Yard site for this development, but also identifies two others sites within two miles;

- and it calls for city council support for establishing a rental scheme for grazing land nearby for horses.

Louise Harrington, an outreach worker with the Cork Traveller Women’s Network, said the Spring Lane halting site crisis has arisen from inadequate management by the local authority over the last 25 years.

“The residents of Spring Lane are local authority tenants who fall under the remit of Cork City Council. They are not asking for special treatment. They are just asking for fair treatment and for the right to live in a safe environment as provided under the Traveller Accommodation Act 1998,” she said.

The halting site was developed in the late 1980s for 10 families. Today, it is home to 34 families — 56 adults and 92 children, 74 of whom are under 14.

As well as chronic overcrowding, the site has poor sanitary facilities, with 10 uninsulated concrete washrooms, three emergency portaloos, and three portable building washrooms.

The site has a dangerous and overloaded electricity supply system, a malfunctioning drainage system, a site which experiences flooding and ponding with raw sewage, and it suffers from rodent infestation.

The original site is also located under a dangerous and unstable cliff.

Ms Harrington praised halting site residents for their resilience over the years and said she hopes this manifesto will finally help break the stalemate in resolving the issues.

City Hall, which was represented at the manifesto launch, was not available for comment.