Supporters of ban on Travellers reject legal panel

Members of Wicklow County Council who are attempting to introduce a ban on Traveller accommodation in scenic areas have refused to seek legal advice from a panel of senior counsel put forward by county manager Eddie Sheehy.

The councillors, who want future Traveller accommodation excluded from national parks or within three kilometres of an area of outstanding natural beauty, yesterday rejected a list of six lawyers offered by the manager.

In an increasingly bitter row, councillors said they would nominate their own senior counsel. One of the proposers of the ban, Pat Vance (FF), warned Mr Sheehy "you either agree to this or we go down the other road".

Mr Vance was thought to be referring to the possibility of the dispute going to court.

Mr Sheehy, who has already secured his own advice from senior counsel, has repeatedly told councillors their proposed ban is legally questionable, particularly in view of the absence of definitions of what is an area of outstanding natural beauty.

Yesterday he told the members: "I asked the law agent to come up with a list of six senior counsel that the county council had not dealt with, who were experienced in this area."

The council had wanted the members to pick two names, from which management could then seek legal advice.

However, Mr Vance insisted the members should produce their own legal panel, and also insisted that any briefing documents or information supplied to senior counsel to aid the second opinion should come first to the members.

While the row centres around moves to relocate a Traveller family from the edge of the N11 at Hollybrook near Bray to Kilmacanogue, Fine Gael councillor Derek Mitchell said yesterday that such a ban could also apply in Greystones where, he claimed, Travellers had threatened to throw his car into the sea.

He said he and other residents had recently blocked the entrance to the south beach car park to prevent Travellers making what is now an annual camp there. Claiming he was threatened, he said the designation of the southern slopes of Bray Head as an area of outstanding natural beauty would have effectively excluded the Travellers from the car park.