Good home for goats, but what about people?

ACCORDING to the local media, the new development plan adopted by Waterford city council allows for an additional open space zone, primarily on council lands, to facilitate a permanent home for the rare goat herd — the last of the breed left in the world — which has lived at Bilberry Rock for many years.

While I wish the goats well in their new permanent home, I would like to remind your readers that the Traveller halting site in Bilberry, which has been home to many families for many years, was condemned by a circuit court judge following the tragic death of a young Traveller girl in 1996.

An environmental report commissioned by Waterford Traveller Community Development Project and funded by Waterford Area Partnership in 1999 also pronounced the Bilberry site “not suitable as residential accommodation for anyone”. Hazards such as flooding and rats from the River Suir, dampness from the Bilberry cliffs, proximity to high tension cables and pylons, lack of winter sunlight, falling rocks from the cliffs, as well as proximity to the road and a dangerous bend, were all cited in the report.

In recent years, and as late as a month ago, large boulders have fallen onto homes on the site, seriously damaging caravans and narrowly missing residents.

It is clearly only a matter of time before someone is killed or seriously injured on this totally unsuitable site.

I wish the goats a long and happy life on the Bilberry cliff, but please can Waterford city council, as landlords, put at least equal energy into living up to their statutory responsibility and implement in full its own Traveller accommodation plan.

Una Ryan

4 Spring Gardens

Waterford