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[Press Release: November 21st, 2004] Greens welcome council proposals re Hollybrook traveller's siteFollowing a recent meeting of councillors on the Bray Area Planning Committee, Green Party councillor, Deirdre de Burca has expressed her support for a new proposal from council officials regarding the traveller's encampment at the Southern Cross. Council officials have proposed that the traveller families at Hollybrook be approached to establish their willingness to move to an alternative, more appropriate site.The Green Party councillor has been very vocal in pressurising Bray Town Council and Wicklow County Council to taken action on the Hollybrook encampment since last June's local elections. She claims that she visited the Hollybrook site with her colleague, Councillor Caroline Burrell, during the elections and spoke to the traveller families there. "It is clear that these families are more than willing to relocate if suitable alternative accommodation is provided for them" says de Burca. "The conditions in which they are living are appalling, and there are young children on the site. The fact that the site is so close to a busy road and roundabout is also a serious problem". De Burca has increasingly been critical of the approach that Wicklow County Council has adopted to the issue of the encampment at the Hollybrook site. She claims that the council's Housing Director, Mr Des O'Brien, is insisting that none of the traveller families should be relocated individually, but should all be moved together when suitable housing is identified. De Burca believes that the probability of the council finding suitable alternative for all of the families at the same time is unrealistic, given that the families have very specific housing needs, and that there is such a shortage of available housing. She has also expressed frustration at the fact that Wicklow County Council has refused to consider any clean-up of the Hollybrook site until all the traveller families have moved from it. "Essentially we have had a stalemate situation up to now where no family can move unless they all move together, and no cleaning of the site can take place until all the families move" says de Burca. "It is no wonder that this situation has not changed over the last eight years or so". De Burca has welcomed the fact that the council will investigate the possibility of identifying an alternative site for the travellers, in consultation with them. "It seems to me to be much more feasible for the council to identify an alternative site for the families concerned than to have to find suitable housing accommodation for each of the families around the county" she says. "However the new site will have to provide temporary services so that the conditions will be significantly improved for the families concerned".
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