This article is from page 29 of the 2008-11-18 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 29 JPG
CLARE County Council and Ennis Town Council are aiming to house 60 Traveller families in standard council housing in the greater Ennis area over the next five years.
According to the council’s draft Traveller Accommodation Plan, there will be a need to house 123 Traveller families between 2009 and 2013. It has been established that 88 indigenous Traveller families are in need of permanent accommodation and it 1s anticipated that an addition- al 35 new families will also require accommodation during the period of the draft plan.
The draft plan confirms that the county’s Traveller population will be concentrated in Ennis, Ennistymon and Shannon where all but two of the 123 residential units will be pro- vided. The other two homes will be provided in Scariff and Killaloe over the five years.
The council makes no provision for transient sites in Clare, holding the view that this should be implement- ed on a national basis using regional NSM CRE Kony
The local authority will gener- ally endeavour to accommodate a minimum of one Traveller family in a grouping of ten local authority rented houses and give due consid-
eration to proportionality throughout the county, subject to the interests of proper estate management.
“This will allow for the ongoing integration of Traveller families into standard housing. The council will promote a progression from Travel- ler specific accommodation to stand- ard housing where appropriate and where the family so desires. This would serve to minimise the number of Traveller specific sites required in the future.”
A comprehensive assessment of the accommodation needs of Travellers took place in September when it was established that by far the greatest need for accommodation was in En- nis where 65 families required hous- ing. This compares to thirteen in the Ennistymon area and eight in the Shannon area.
The plan anticipates that 60 Travel- ler families will be accommodated in standard council housing in the greater Ennis area with 24 families accommodated in group housing or SEVER UNTSMESSI Roe
Ten Traveller families will be ac- commodated in standard council housing in Shannon, while six fami- lies will be accommodated in En- nistymon in council housing, while an additional twelve families will be accommodated in group housing in the north Clare town.