£60K LEGAL BILL AS FAMILY REFUSED SITE
CORPORATION LEFT WITH LEGAL BILL AFTER FAMILY REFUSED OFFER
SLIGO Corporation was left to foot a hefty legal bill in 1996 after various legal proceedings involving a travelling family illegally parked on Connaughton Road.
The Sligo Champion reported extensively throughout the 1990’s on effort to resolve the stalemate in the car park, as Paul Deering’s report from 1st May 1996 shows:
Shocked councillors were told of the debt at Monday night’s meeting of the Corporation which also heard that a new halting site, containing ten bays, was completed at Finisklin some months ago but as of yet no families have been lined up for the facility.
Town clerk, John McNabola, was at pains to point out that word should not go out that travellers were refusing to move. Cllr. Sheelagh Hanly said she believed the Corporation should have built at halting site at Ash Lane first.
The Mayor Cllr Matt Lyons said it was extraordinary that no family had moved into the newly created site at Finisklin.
“It’s a modern site, yet we still have families living in appalling conditions at Connaughton Road and breaking the law in the process,” he said.
“What is the point if we are not prepared to bring families into that site? There are ten bays and yet no one is in there. Its is an appalling situation,” he added.
Cllr Gerry McCanny queried if the Corporation was now in legal limbo as regards the new halting site. He angrily stated that travellers parked illegally at Connaughton Road should be thrown out of there and added he didn’t care where they went.
Mr McNabola said the Corporation tried to move travellers living on Connaughton Road and the matter ended up in court.
No resolution could be found and the Corporation were left to pick up substantial costs.
Efforts were being made to secure tenants for the Finisklin site but he was not in a position to say how soon they would be able to move in.
A social worker was liaising with traveller at present in an effort to identify suitable families.
In reply to Cllr Vincent Murray, Mr McNabola said he had no indication that the travellers were refusing to move to Finisklin.
Cllr. Murray pointed out that the site had been lying empty for six months while Ald. Sean MacManus said the whole issue was frustrating.
The mayor said he believed costs in the region of £60,000 would have to be met by the Corporation in relation to legal proceedings concerning attempts to move one travelling family.
“What Local Authority can afford that?” he asked.
An editorial from April 1996 described how Connaughton Road, “one of the North Ward’s notorious black spots,” had “by now passed into local legend.”
“Its decline and virtual abandonment by the authorities has been highlighted time after time, again evoking no worthwhile response.”
“Utter neglect seems to be the order of the day, with no attempt of any kind to establish control on a busy road where great danger is posed to travellers’ young children by passing traffic,” we wrote.