'Inaction is not an option': Redevelopment plan for Spring Lane halting site agreed by council 

A redevelopment plan for the Spring Lane halting site at Ballyvolane has been agreed on by Cork City Council.

The plan, which is worth €18m and includes the construction of 27 residential units at Spring Lane and the adjoining Ellis’s Yard, was passed with 25 votes in favour and three against, with councillors Joe Kavanagh and Des Cahill of Fine Gael and Independent Ken O’Flynn against.

Green Party councillor for Cork City North East, Oliver Moran, said ahead of the meeting that the situation “that has been allowed to develop over the course of decades at Spring Lane is intolerable”.

He said that in 2019, one of his first acts as chairman of the Traveller accommodation committee was to organise a visit by mainly new councillors to the site.

“It opened people’s eyes to conditions few would believe could exist outside of the Third World,” he said.

Speaking at last night’s council meeting, Mr Moran welcomed members of the Travelling community who were in attendance in the public gallery, saying: “While no plan is perfect, this is as close as we can get, and inaction is, morally, not an option.”

He said there will still be work to be done to deliver housing on a site with people living on it while simultaneously reducing the number of families at Spring Lane.

Councillor John Sheehan, who is also a GP, said that he had been to the site many times with GP trainees who are shocked at the conditions there, saying: “There are rats running around and children playing in dangerous conditions.

“The easy thing is to do nothing, but we have an obligation to do something.”

Dr Sheehan acknowledged there are challenges, but said “to do nothing risks continuing terrible living conditions”.

Fine Gael councillor Joe Kavanagh proposed a vote on the topic, saying that he bases his votes on what residents of the Ballyvolane area feel, saying “nobody knows the area better than people who live there”.

Labour’s John Maher said that he lives in Ballyvolane himself and was in support of the plan, saying: “Building homes for people is not a waste of money, in my opinion.”

Independent Ken O’Flynn called the plan “flawed”, saying there were no signed documents from the Travelling community around giving up livestock in particular.

“I agree that nobody deserves to live like that, but we cannot ignore the elephants in the room — the elephants being horses, other accommodation that has to be found, people that will be displaced.”

Sinn Féin’s Mick Nugent said his party had made a lengthy submission on the proposed plans, and were largely satisfied with the responses they had received on the issues raised.

Councillors Ted Tynan of the Worker’s Party, Independent Thomas Moloney, Fine Gael’s Shane O’Callaghan, An Rabharta Glas’ Lorna Bogue, and Fine Gael’s Shane O’Callaghan also spoke in support of the motion, saying the situation as it was could not be allowed to continue.