Public to have their say on €18m housing plan for regeneration of Cork City Traveller halting site

Cork City Council has drawn up plans to build Traveller-specific housing for 27 families on the existing Spring lane site, and on the adjoining Ellis’s yard site

Artist's impressions of the proposed €18m housing regeneration plan for the Spring Lane Traveller halting site in Cork.

Plans for an €18m housing regeneration plan to resolve overcrowding and chronic living conditions on one of Ireland’s worst Traveller halting sites have been published for public consultation.

The Green Party in Cork described the publication by Cork City Council of the Spring Lane plan, first revealed by the Irish Examiner last week, as an opportunity to “make good years of neglect”.

Chair of the council’s local Traveller accommodation consultative committee, Cllr Oliver Moran, said the conditions on Spring Lane were appalling and that effect was felt by people living there and the wider community in the area.

“This plan is the opportunity to fix that,” he said.

“It reduces the number of families living across the site and transforms their living conditions.

“A key dimension is that the site will be properly managed on an ongoing basis.

“It's designed to prevent the kind of unplanned expansion that was allowed over the past 35 years and that created the conditions there now.

“The council has worked closely with the families on the site to make sure the plan will work.

“It's taken on years of feedback from residents in the surrounding area.

“That knowledge can be seen in the design that's come forward.

Traveller Visibility Group’s head of advocacy Breda O’Donoghue has welcomed the long-awaited and long overdue housing scheme but said it 'needs political will' to ensure it gets over the line.

“There's no doubt that there will be challenges in implementing what's proposed but the status quo is not an option and other ideas aren't practical.

This is the plan to draw a line under the conditions at Spring Lane, make good the neglect residents there are experiencing, and accrue that benefit for the whole community.

Spring Lane halting site opened in 1989 as a 10-bay halting site, but following unauthorised expansion, it has become home to more than 50 families.

It was the subject of a damning report by the Ombudsman for Children in 2021, which found the council had failed to consider the best interests of children living on the site by allowing them to live in filthy, overcrowded, rat-infested, and unsafe living conditions.

The poor conditions had a “significant and prolonged adverse impact” on children living there, the Ombudsman said.

Following extensive engagement since, the council has drawn up plans to build Traveller-specific housing for 27 families on the existing site, and on the adjoining Ellis’s yard site.

The Traveller Visibility Group’s head of advocacy Breda O’Donoghue has welcomed the long-awaited and long overdue housing scheme but said it “needs political will” to ensure it gets over the line.

The plan is available for inspection and for public consultation until April 10 at consult.corkcity.ie.