Spring Lane halting site in Cork still awaiting long-promised €18m facelift

Five years after the children’s ombudsman criticised “shocking” and “deplorable” conditions at the Spring Lane halting site in Ballyvolane, little has improved, the chair of Cork City Council’s Traveller accommodation committee has said.

Following a weekend of unrest at the Northside city halting site, two men were hospitalised last Sunday with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds.

The Garda helicopter and armed-response unit attended the scene at the weekend, and Garda patrols have since been seen intermittently at the halting site.

There has been a call for a special meeting of Cork City Council to discuss the violence.

Spring Lane was originally a gravel quarry, before it was turned in to a 10-bay halting site in 1989.

Shocking and deplorable conditions

In 2021, the Ombudsman for Children’s Office (OCO) criticised the council for what it deemed to be “shocking” and “deplorable” conditions for children living at Spring Lane.

In a damning report, it found that children were living in a filthy, overcrowded, rat-infested, and unsafe environment. Raw sewage was visible. The OCO found that about 140 people were using toilets and washing facilities designed for 40 people.

Two years ago, the council drew up plans for an €18m regeneration, including the redevelopment of the halting site and the construction of a purpose-built group housing scheme in the adjacent Ellis Yard.

Those plans were subsequently approved by councillors.

This week, a council spokesperson said the scheme had received planning approval, and the council intended for the works to go to tender in the coming weeks.

However, the chairperson of the council’s Traveller accommodation committee, councillor Oliver Moran, said that the information was news to him.

Hard to point to improvements

“It’s hard to point to anything that’s improved for residents, compared to when the Ombudsman for Children’s Office report came out,” he said.

“It’s still under a so-called emergency protocol, where day-to-day housing-maintenance services from Cork City Council are restricted. There hasn’t been any practical progress to redevelop the site since planning was approved.”

Mr Moran added that most people would not believe the conditions in which people are living in Spring Lane.

“Basic things — like electricity, sanitation, shelter — you have people fighting over and competing for resources,” he said.

“It’s other-worldly, an entirely parallel world that most people wouldn’t believe could even exist today in a city like Cork.

“The system is still in the same kind of paralysis that was identified then. It’s still a case that there’s no end in sight for residents living there, or a sense of movement towards something.

“Every day is deja vu and it feels like people are helpless.”