Travellers give assurances at meeting with Greystones residents

Gardai, officials of Wicklow County Council, residents and travellers held a meeting at a travellers' encampment at Greystones yesterday to try to defuse a row between the travellers and the local community.

The residents, whose estate, Burnaby Mill, is located between the local rugby and tennis clubs, requested the intervention of the gardai and the council after the number of traveller caravans in the encampment rose to 22 in recent days. The travellers are camped in a field which belongs to the county council, and which is adjacent to the housing estate.

Mr Paul Costello, a local resident, said parents in the area were worried about the safety of their children after horses were found wandering in the front gardens. Mr Costello also said they were concerned about speeding cars and what he claimed was the unsightly nature of the camp.

However, Mr Costello said the residents were not opposed to travellers in principle. "It is their behaviour which we find worrying and a danger to our children. If it was a resident causing horses to wander about or speeding up and down the access road, our reaction would be the same."

The county council has dug a trench around the field to prevent further caravans entering the encampment. Mr Brian Doyle, the county secretary, said the meeting had "resulted in undertakings from the travellers that no more caravans would join the group and that they would be all gone by the end of the month".

"It is the start of the traditional travelling season and our officials met with the travellers and the gardai following complaints about the travellers' behaviour. We now have assurances from the travellers about their behaviour and their undertaking that they will leave," he said.

Mr Doyle added that the draft county plan on travellers was at an advanced stage, but added that yesterday's meeting had convinced officials that it should be amended to contain some provision for transitory halting sites.