‘Junkyard’ row continues at Tipperary housing estate as council ‘powerless’ to address issue
Parts of a Tipperary housing estate still look like a “junkyard” with several cars and campervans parked around it, a local representative has said.
Cllr Pat English raised the issue again at the September meeting of Clonmel Borough District, asking if there had been any progress on concerns about the alleged repair of campervans and cars from in Elm Park.
“Is there any update on the unauthorised use of an area in Elm Park for the repair of campervans and cars?” he asked.
However, district engineer Gillian Flynn said the council could not take action under roads legislation as the vehicles were not causing an obstruction.
“I have visited Elm Park and the only legislation I have available to me to serve notice is the roads act, and at the moment, none of the campervans are actually causing an obstruction to the road,” she said.
“I’m powerless there, but I will talk to the housing side again, they have issued notices under the tenancy agreement, but I will follow up on those,” Ms Flynn added.
The issue was first raised earlier this summer, representatives in the Clonmel Borough District raised concerns about a person in the Elm Park housing estate allegedly running a business repairing campervans and cars from their home.
Several cars and campervans could be seen parked around the housing estate, with councillor Pat English saying that something needed to be done about it.
At a previous meeting, Cllr English said that the area was like a “junkyard”.
“A resident there is running a business, and there’s an awful lot of scrap cars and various other things in the area, one section of Elm Park looks like a junkyard,” Cllr English said previously.
“It’s very unfair on the existing residents in the area and we’re getting it in the head, and rightly so. This has been reported on numerous occasions and nothing seems to have been done over that period,” he added.
At a previous meeting, Jonathan Cooney, the council’s director of service for housing, said that the housing section had been engaging with the resident in question, but that progress had been slow.
“Progress has been slow, albeit limited, but we had a fairly recent visit up there and timelines have been agreed and that’s something we’ll be monitoring over the coming weeks,” he said.
“We are also engaging with other departments within Tipperary County Council who will assist us in that regard,” Mr Cooney said.