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Part 8 Information Session
10th of March at 11 am, on Zoom
With Christopher McCann, solicitor, FLAC Traveller Legal Service
and Una Ryan, coordinator, Waterford Traveller CDP
They will talk us through the process of how 2 residents on a site in Waterford took a legal challenge against the Local Authority, when a planned development of the site was voted down by councillors at the "Part 8" stage. They will explain how FLAC Traveller Legal Service and Waterford Traveller CDP worked together from the first referral right through to the court case and after.
Christopher will highlight how this case may be relevant to all local Traveller organisations and what we can learn from it, as well as what we can all be looking out for around Part 8, and where it would be appropriate to make a referral to FLAC Traveller Legal Service for support on this.
There will also be plenty of time for discussion and Q&A. Please let us know by replying to this email if you would like to attend this session and we will circulate the Zoom link closer to the time.
Explainer: What is Part 8 and what does it have to do with Traveller accommodation?
Most Traveller-specific accommodation is built on publicly owned land and planned and delivered by Local Authorities. This means proposals for developments go through a Part 8 process where councillors get to vote for or against the development. This vote gives councillors a lot of control over the final approval of proposals for Traveller-specific accommodation. This is a problem where councillors hold discriminatory and racist views or where they are heavily lobbied by other local residents who hold discriminatory and racist views.
This has been identified by Traveller organisations and by the Traveller Accommodation Expert Review as a big barrier to Traveller accommodation being built. The Traveller Accommodation Expert Review recommended that Traveller-specific accommodation should be removed from the Part 8 Process to remove this barrier and ITM and other Traveller organisations have being continuously campaigning for this to happen.
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