Council warns of legal action to remove families from site

TRAVELLERS HAVE occupied a vacant site in north Dublin that Dublin City Council needs to include in the Government’s land aggregation scheme to stop mounting loan payments.

The council is anxious to off-load three plots in the Darndale/Donaghmede area for which it has already paid out more than €8.5 million in interest. However it will be unable to transfer one of the sites due to its recent occupation by a group of about 15 Traveller families.

Under the scheme, which has been set up to cut the escalating property loan debts of local authorities, housing loans are paid off by the Department of the Environment and the land is transferred to the recently established Housing and Sustainable Communities Agency, which will determine the future use of the land in consultation with the National Asset Management Agency.

In 2008, the Travellers had moved on to council-owned lands at Oscar Traynor Road, in north Dublin. The council sought a High Court injunction to remove them from the site more than two years ago. The injunction was granted and was due to come into effect about three months ago.

However just days before the implementation of the court order, the Travellers left the site and occupied other council-owned land at nearby Newtown Court, off Belcamp Lane, which the council intends to transfer to the State housing agency.

An inspection of the site by the council in October found that a new entrance to the land had been created and large amounts of hard-core stone had been used to create makeshift roads and parking spots for caravans. Lighting and toilets were installed but it was not apparent how water was being sourced, the council said.

A senior council official said there was no option but to again begin legal proceedings against the Travellers to try to move them off the site.

However this process is likely to take a considerable length of time and in the meantime, the council will have to keep paying interest on the land which it cannot transfer to the agency.

He said the families have been made a number of offers of accommodation by the council but these have all been rejected or ignored.

Under the terms of the land aggregation scheme, the council must have vacant possession of a site before it can seek transfer to the agency.

The Travellers have not occupied all of the lands due to be transferred and it is likely that the Department of the Environment will pay off the loans of the unencumbered sites.

However the council said that due to the impediment the illegal occupation was causing, it was seeking to have the case listed with the High Court as “a matter of urgency”.

The State’s local authorities have a combined housing loan debt of about €650 million. Most local authorities have applied to offload some or all of their unwanted land to the housing agency.

TRAVELLERS' VIEW 'THEY'VE TRIED TO PUT US IN HOSTELS, B&BS . . . THAT'S NOT SUITABLE

The extended Gavin family who moved on to the Newtown Court lands almost three months ago said the council has not offered them a suitable place to live.

“They offered us a place in St Dominick’s that isn’t fit for human habitation, for one thing, and it’s not safe for us there,” Martin Gavin a spokesman for the family said.

The Gavin family has been involved in a dispute with a family already living at St Dominick’s Park, a halting site about a kilometre from Newtown Court, which is in an extremely rundown state, and they have agreed not to go back to the site, Mr Gavin said.

“They also offered us a place in Dunsink Lane where there are also people we’ve had problems with in the past.

“They’ve tried to put us in hostels, B&Bs, all housing that’s not suitable for Traveller families.”

Mr Gavin concedes that the conditions are Newtown Court site are not appropriate either, particularly given the presence of children at the site.

“There is no proper water system here, we’re using portaloos we’ve got in ourselves, a generator for electricity. There’s no proper surface on the ground, so especially when it rains the place is a mess.”

However, he said it was preferable to the alternatives offered by the council, and the families do not intend to move on in the current circumstances.

“Until the council can sort us out with proper accommodation for our family and unless we don’t plan on moving, at least here, there is a bit of peace.”

OLIVIA KELLY