SPC Housing, Community and Art – Report

SPC Housing, Community and Art Report, Feb 12th 2018

PPN Representative – Andrea Galgey

Art: Jane Cantwell showed the Culture Initiative being rolled out this year which will have a lot of funding for community groups in 2019. Jane has been invited to attend the PPN Plenary later in the year.

Housing: The TAP (traveller accommodation plan) was discussed in great length especially why the council hadn’t drawn down the money allocated by the Government. Director of Services, Ivan Grimes explained that this isn’t a set figure they get. They applied for a total of 4 grants last year of which only one happened because of planning, objections, fighting within the Traveller Community etc.

There was a long discussion about the horses and where they are kept. They are now becoming a hazard with over 30 in Ballybeg alone. He also explained how upkeep of council houses costs an average of 700 per year and for Traveller Accommodation it costs around 10,000 without a major return. They are looking at a new scheme in Dublin where Travellers can purchase their site after a few years (with conditions). Hopefully this will provide a certain amount of pride in their area and site.

There are 100 houses at turnkey stage throughout Waterford and these are being allocated to people on the list at present so will help alleviate the housing problem.

Community; Unfortunately Community SEO Don Tuohy wasnt able to attend to give an update on community so most of it was skipped over. There was talk about the community fund which is open now and if there was anyway to make it fairer. They are looking into it.