Anger over Travellers camping in Athy estate - Ireland

From the Kildare Nationalist

RESIDENTS in an Athy housing estate are angry at the lack of action by the council and gardaí in moving on Travellers they claim are illegally camped in their estate.

The residents of Dun Brinn asked for their names to be withheld as they feared reprisals for speaking out.

“There have been caravans parked in the estate since the second week in April. We have called the town council, the county council and the guards on an on-going basis, and nobody is helping or giving us solutions,” said one woman. “We have also asked local councillors to help. There have been caravans coming and going since April, some days there are four caravans there, other days there are two and one day there was one caravan. The people in the caravans have been throwing human waste on the green areas and at night time they can be seen going to the toilet in the area,” said the resident.

Another member of the residents’ association said that they had had no response from the council on the issue until last week. “One of us called the council and the council said that they had been in touch with the gardaí who say they are unable to do anything unless the Travellers cause an obstruction. There are powers under law in relation to caravans parked in private property, but this does not apply to Dunn Brinn as it is not a private place under the legislation, despite the fact that the town council has taken over the estate. Last week we received confirmation from Cllr Mark Wall that the council had served notice on the Travellers. But we suspect that the Travellers who the notices were served on are not the Travellers who are there now because of all the coming and going that has been going on. We think that that the council can do more about this problem.”

In a statement Athy Town Council said the council has a number of powers under legislation (housing, sanitary services, planning and roads) and that each incident is considered on a case by case basis, following report from the council’s housing officer. The council said statutory notices (a notice giving those in the caravans 48 hours to leave the area) have been served on the occupants and legal follow-up will be considered, where necessary.

The statement also acknowledged the ongoing assistance of the Traveller Accommodation Section (Kildare Co Council- who have county wide remit for the provision of Traveller accommodation) and Athy gardaí.