It's a fire hazard, it's prone to flooding, a rock-fall could happen at any time, there's no electricity or hot water and the toilets are unusable. Then there's the rat problem and the permanent lack of sunlight.
Even the most inventive estate agent could not make the Travellers' halting site at Bilberry in Waterford sound habitable, never mind attractive.
Waterford Corporation, however, will keep it open as a transient halting site unless councillors vote to change the draft accommodation programme for Travellers at a city council meeting next month. Calls for the closure of the site - a disused quarry under a steep cliff which encloses it on three sides - are growing. An independent safety expert said it would be closed immediately if it were a place of work, while concerns have also been expressed by the South Eastern Health Board.
Ms Ann Mongan, who lives at the site with her husband, John, and nine children, said the only alternative to remaining was for the family to go back on the road, which she was not prepared to do.
Improvements to the site are to be carried out by the corporation in the next few weeks. Those campaigning for its closure fear these will serve only to copper-fasten its long-term future.
"Of course emergency services are needed," said Mr Thomas Erbsloh, of the Waterford Traveller Interest Constituency, a partnership of local Travellers and voluntary groups. "But they must be for the short term only and strictly on the basis that the site is going to be closed."
An independent study commissioned by the WTIC last year found that failure to control the rat problem had resulted in "clear health problems" for the residents, who showed "a high level of kidney disease". It called for an extensive screening programme.
The study, carried out by a Dublin-based consultancy firm, Community Technical Aid (CTA), also refers to the "ever-present danger" of falling rocks caused by wild goats. The Mongans have already had one lucky escape. "We were sitting in the trailer a few weeks ago and stones hopped off the roof," said Ms Mongan.
"They're only wasting their money doing the place up because it's too dangerous, but we've got no other place to go. We have to stay here until they find us a place. All we want is electricity, a toilet and a shower somewhere else close to town," she said.
A health and safety consultant who contributed to the CTA study, Mr Niall Edward of EMS and Associates, said the condition of the site was "extremely hazardous". The possibility of electrocution caused by faulty generators was "very high", the nearest fire hydrant was 138 yards from the entrance point, and children were at risk from passing traffic.
Conditions at the site were "deplorable", he said. "If this site was a place of employment, it would be closed immediately."
In a letter to the corporation's housing officer in December, the senior area medical officer for the South Eastern Health Board, Dr Patrick Lanigan, said the board shared the CTA's concerns. "I feel there is an urgent need for another facility and I don't see any sense of urgency in this regard at present," he said.
Waterford Corporation accepts the location is "not ideal" but says it has no alternative transient site available. "What we want to do now is refurbish the site and improve the living conditions for the people there," said the assistant town clerk, Mr Paddy Power.
"We could close it down in the morning but then the difficulty would be where would the people go. The site is not ideal, we acknowledge that, but it will be much better when it's refurbished." A contractor had been engaged to carry out works including the installation of showers, new toilets and electricity.
The toilets at the site are badly damaged; one toilet bowl has a gaping hole in the side. A single tap provides cold water only.
The Mongans, who moved in last August, are the only family currently living within the official site, but the number fluctuates. Mrs Nellie Burke, her husband and six of their children live in two caravans beside the entrance. "We lived in the site for two-and-a-half years but we had to move out because of the rats. They weren't afraid of the dogs because the dogs had got so used to them." Mrs Burke has been allocated a house by the corporation and is waiting for it to be completed.
The draft accommodation plan envisages a four-bay site after refurbishment.
Prior to living in Bilberry, the Mongans spent 12 years in halting sites in Manchester and London. "We had all the facilities we needed," said Ms Mongan. "The bus comes right to the door to collect your children for school. They were a credit to the councils and the people living in them."
