Councillors back move to restrict sites for Travellers

A majority of councillors on Wicklow County Council have backed a motion banning the creation or designation of Traveller accommodation within a three-kilometre radius of a national park or any area of outstanding natural beauty.

The members have sought independent legal advice on whether they can forbid the county manager from establishing Traveller accommodation in up to 40 per cent of the county.

The issue is being watched carefully by councils elsewhere as it has the potential to effectively wrest the power for Traveller housing from management and give it to the elected councillors.

At the core of the row in Wicklow is a proposal from county manager Eddie Sheehy to move a family from a roadside site at Hollybrook, an access point to Bray town from the N11, to a new site at Killough Lower, Kilmacanogue.

Kilmacanogue councillor Christopher Fox (Ind) told the council the proposed site is on the main Dublin to Glendalough Road which he claimed was "the second-most visited tourist attraction in Ireland".

Cllr Fox tabled a seven-part motion under section 139 of the Local Government Act instructing the manager not to proceed with the compulsory purchase orders for the new accommodation and in future to ban such accommodation from anywhere near beauty sites and national parks.

The motion was co-signed by councillors Joe Behan (FF), Pat Vance (FF), Ann Ferris (Lab) and John Ryan (FG).

Labour councillor Tommy Cullen said the motion had "huge ramifications" as 40 per cent of the county was either part of a national park or an area of outstanding natural beauty.

Cllr Vance suggested the councillors get independent legal advice to "have the manager's advice examined" and he sought clarification on whether it would be funded by the council.

Cllr Behan said he was disgusted that the legal advice had been delivered to councillors just half an hour before the meeting. This was using "the legal weaponry of the council to intimidate the councillors", he said.

Cllr Ryan told the meeting that the Bray area councillors were "completely frustrated" by a lack of consultation on the manager's proposals.

"The director of services just told us it didn't really matter what we thought," he said.

But acting manager Bryan Doyle said the motion was "seriously flawed", as the legal advice was that designations of outstanding natural beauty were somewhat legally uncertain. There was "no onus on us [the council staff] to send out the legal advice" and he said that in relation to the accommodation of Travellers, "legislative changes now give the function to the county manager".

Cllr Cullen said the advice appeared to him to be "flawed below the waterline". Such designations as areas of natural beauty had long been used as reasons to refuse planning permission. "Does this mean those refusals are now uncertain?" he asked.

Councillors will now seek independent legal advice.