Glenview scheme is ‘badly needed’
COUNCILLORS SAY HALTING SITE IS NEEDED FOR OTHER FAMILIES
THE vast majority of Sligo County Councillors voted in favour of refurbishing six halting bays in Glenview Halting Site because they said they could help the housing crisis.
Last week’s vote on the proposal was proposed by Fine Gael Councillor Hubert Keaney and seconded by Fianna Fáil Councillor Tom MacSharry.
Two traveller families - the Wards who live in Glenview and the McGinleys of Connaughton Road - are strongly opposed to the refurbishment and protested outside the Council headquarters before last Monday’s June Council meeting.
Cllr Keaney said the councillors had no say in relation to which family might be accommodated in the refurbished halting bays.
“We have an opportunity to improve an existing site. It badly needs to be refurbished,” he said, adding that the opportunity was there to draw down Government funding of ¤900,000 for the project.
Councillor Tom MacSharry welcomed the protesting Traveller families into the chamber.
He said Sligo Traveller Support Group representative Bernadette Mongan met with the Councillors the week before.
“I found her very impressive. I would hope that significant inroads would be made for housing for certain individuals,” he told the chamber.
“We have a housing crisis in Ireland -that’s the reality. We have an opportunity to utilise a site that was derelict. That might help,” he said.
Cllr MacSharry said the “optics of the way this was handled was regrettable, both in the way it was construed in the media and in the way some people were informed.”
He appealed to the Traveller representatives who resigned from the Local Traveller Accommodation Consultative Committee to reconsider their position and return to the committee.
He added that the meeting between Bernadette Mongan and members had been “very open and transparent”. Cllrs Keaney and MacSharry were supported by Fianna Fáil Cllr
Martin
Baker who said if the
Council was seen to turn down a scheme it would
“look bad” with the
Department.
“We’re only assuming who’s going into it - there are a lot of families who could go into it. We’re sending a bad message to the Department if we turn down the money,” said Cllr Baker and also appealed to the Traveller representatives to reconsider their resignations.
Sligo County Council Chief Executive Ciarán Hayes said the Glenview halting bays had been lying idle “for some time” and had fallen into disrepair.
He said the site would be “made available to the wider Traveller community.
Cllrs Baker, Clarke, Gormley, Healy, Henry, Keaney, Lundy, MacManus, MacSharry, Mulvey, O’Grady, Queenan and Taylor (13) voted in favour of the motion.
It was opposed by Cllrs Bree and O’Boyle. Cllrs Casserly, Kilgannon and Maguire were absent from the meeting.