Disquiet over Blackberry Lane revamp aired at council meeting

A claim that there is a "sizeable gap" between what local residents expect to see happen at the Traveller Accomodation facility at Blackberry Lane in Athlone and what the planners have in mind for the site, was made by Cllr Aengus O'Rourke during a recent monthly meeting of Westmeath County Council in Mullingar.

For a number of years now the council has been involved in discussions and preparatory work relating to an upgrade of the Traveller accommodation in place at the Blackberry lane site.

The project came about after concerns were raised several years ago about overcrowding at the site and the lack of accommodation for members of the Travelling community in Westmeath.

Last year initial designs for the redevelopment of the site were revised, and the council said consultations were being carried out with the residents there.

At the recent meeting of the local authority, Cllr O'Rourke said both he and Cllr Paul Hogan had attended a development committee meeting recently, where the extent of that "gap" between the residents' expectations and the council's plans became clear.

“That's a major problem in terms of advancing the proposals for Blackberry Lane,” he said, wondering if the council had addressed any of the issues of concern.

“Are we any closer to finding a solution to what will finally be developed on the ground at Blackberry Lane? It's many, many years now of investigation,” he said.

Director of Services Jackie Finney said the council had been meeting with officials from the the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications on a quarterly basis regarding Blackberry Lane, because there was funding in place, and the project was currently going through the various preparatory stages.

In addition, she said, there was a meeting held some months ago with all the families with regard to the revised design.

It wasn't possible at the time to get agreement from everybody in relation to the new design, Ms Finney said.

She added that the council's housing section had met with all the families individually on it – "so we're still working through the process with regard to final design and agreement from the families."