Caravans moved from Laois site after 'intimidation' and fear

CARAVANS parked illegally in Laois for over five years have finally been moved but locals want barriers installed to prevent their return.

The encampment at Treacy’s Cross in The Heath led to “intimidation” and other incidents that left residents in the area “very frightened”, a council meeting was told this week.

“The important thing is to make sure they don’t come back,” Cllr Paschal McEvoy told a meeting in county hall, as he called for measures to stop unauthorised dwellings and caravans using the land.

The Stradbally councillor said: “There were older residents who were very frightened and there was intimidation over the years. An awful lot of stuff went on out there and it wasn’t a nice situation.” 

Caravans were moved from the site opposite The Heath GAA club within the past few weeks, after what cllr McEvoy described as “great work” by the county council’s housing section after “a long drawn-out process”. Some of the caravans had been on the land since early 2020.

While the site has been secured with a large bank of clay, Cllr McEvoy stressed that permanent measures are needed to prevent similar problems in future.

He said: “Everyone here is well aware of the situation, where caravans moved into the area pre-Covid and only left in recent weeks. It’s unfair the way they pop up their caravans on any part of the road, whereas if I left my car on the side of the road it would be moved fairly quick.

“I know the site has been secured at the moment but in the long term we have to make sure it doesn’t happen again.” 

Cllr Aidan Mullins agreed and commented: “If I put my son into a caravan outside my house the council would be all over me like a rash, yet these people can pull in, sometimes on private land, and cause disruption and it takes ages to move them on.” 

Cllr Mullins said that, shortly after the council moved caravans from The Heath, some pulled into the overflow car park behind the community centre in Portarlington. He recalled that when caravans arrived in the town’s Lansdowne Estate, where a long time had been spent getting them out previously, gardaí had to attend when caravans were towed away.

Cllr Mullins said the council’s roads department should be the section involved in moving illegal encampments, as he felt it didn’t make sense for the council’s housing section to be the relevant authority.

Cllr Aisling Moran remarked: “There seems to be one rule for one and another rule for another but a law is a law and it applies to everybody. We’re told we can’t move them on unless we have a house for them but you offer them ten houses and they keep turning them down. They still won’t move on.” 

She added that the cost of moving illegal encampments was “phenomenal”, money that could otherwise be spent on roads or other needs in the county.

Cllr McEvoy proposed that Laois Co Council ‘put in place measures that will stop unauthorised dwellings/caravans using land at a site at Treacy’s Cross, The Heath in the future’.

In a written response, a senior engineer said the housing department ‘will be installing measures to try to prevent unauthorised dwellings/caravans using this site’.

The proposal was made at the 18 June meeting of Graiguecullen-Portarlington Municipal District.