This article is from page 9 of the 2006-04-04 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 9 JPG
CLARE County Council is to spend in the region of €250,000 demolishing a €1.5 million emergency traveller accommodation unit it built only four years ago to ease Ennis’s traveller accommodation crisis.
Already, the estimated costs for providing 24 hour security at the site in Gleninagh have been put at €378,000, or €9,000 a month since it opened in March 2002.
The security bill arose from a High Court challenge, which brought the council head-to-head with residents, in 2001.
The agreement reached after that challenge to ensure the site opened, saw the council agreeing to implement a report by consultants CAAS.
That report, focussing on a 17.5 acre site at Gleninagh, recommended the provision in the area of a games area, passive amenities and a pathway to adjacent houses.
In recent weeks, council officials have held discussions with representatives from the local residents and St Claire’s School to see what part of the CAAS plan can now be implemented.
“The agreement entered into needs to be honoured to show the bona fides of Council,” said Ennis Town Councillor, Donal O’Bearra (GP).
“One in five of all Europeans are now obese so it is more important than ever to put in elements of CAAS plan because they are all active amenities.
“The residents have kept their side of the deal.
“It is now up to the council to fulfil their side and be generous and speedy in carrying it out”.
No final figure has been put on the works and the council is to lodge the proposed works programme with the Department of the Environment. That is expected back within a couple of weeks.
However, part of the money will be invested in implementing the CAAS report.
In advance of the site being demolished, the Council relocated the six traveller families to a new emergency site on Ennis’s Quin Road last October.
The structures contained in the halting site contained re-enforced concrete.
It is proposed to demolish these and put a layer of top-soil on the surface.