Members of a Traveller community have declined to move into a €1.8m brand new housing development, that has been provided through the auspices of Tipperary Co. Council, unless two stables and at least a half-an-acre of land are included behind each of six newly built state of the art dwelling houses.
Top Picture: Unofficial halting site near Cabragh Bridge, on the Yellow Lough road, Thurles, directly opposite the new building development. Bottom Picture: Two of the 6 house development, complete with Solar Photvoltaic type roof panels.
The members of this Traveller community involved in this dispute, have occupied an unofficial halting site on a disused side road near Cabragh Bridge, on the Yellow Lough road just outside Thurles town, in Co. Tipperary, for some 40 years.
These newly erected dwellings consist of two five-bedroomed and four three-bedroomed houses, and are positioned on a site less than 200 meters across the road from this unofficial Traveller halting site.
Erected over a two-year period, at a cost of some €1,718,670, plus VAT; this overall development is surrounded by wooden fencing and plastered concrete walls to the rear, with high capped limestone walls erected to the side and fore.
However, the Traveller community on the far side of the road say they will not be occupying this accommodation unless their demands for livestock housing and land are fully provided.
Tipperary County Council yesterday stated that they will not be providing additional land in the townsland of Cabragh, to house and graze horses; confirming they were solely in the business of providing housing for families and not accommodation for horses.
Tipperary Co. Council are now also seeking vacant possession of this Traveller communities existing unauthorised site, with continuous discussions understood to have been taking place over many months with a view to fully resolving the matter.
Tipperary Co. Council are now under pressure to transfer these homes to other tenants waiting currently on their ever growing housing list. However the dispute is most likely to remain in a situation of stalemate for the foreseeable future.
