THE terms of a signed agreement which includes the removal of casual traders in Glengarriff have been breached, according to a solicitor for Cork County Council.
Ms Patricia Murphy appeared at Bantry District Court last Thursday on behalf of the local authority, while Mr Tom Power (BL) appeared on behalf of Quills Retail Ltd.
Ms Murphy told Judge Joanne Carroll: ‘The company had failed to comply with an enforcement notice and a signed agreement was entered into.’
The case was adjourned, but not before the judge warned that the terms of the agreement, including the removal of casual traders, ‘has to be implemented’.
The ten-point agreement in question was handed in to Judge Treasa Keane at a special sitting of Bantry District Court on Thursday March 20th of this year.
At that hearing an agreement, dated March 19th, was signed by Padraig Quill of Quills Retail Ltd, Cork County Council, and witnesses.
A week earlier Padraig Quill had presented each of the food truck operators a letter indicating that he was terminating a verbal agreement that allowed them to trade in the car park outside his business in Glengarriff.
Under the terms of the agreement, Padraig Quill gave an undertaking to remove the traders within a period of seven days, namely by the close of business on Wednesday March 26th.
If they were not removed by that date, the company agreed to take legal proceedings to have the market stalls removed within a month of March 19th.
Padraig Quill also agreed that if that course of action did not work he would prosecute the traders ‘with due haste and diligence.’
At the time, the six or seven regular traders at the open-air market kept a relatively low profile and continued to trade throughout the summer months.
They also garnered a huge amount and more than 3,000 people signed an online petition claiming they were a tourist attraction in their own right.
The traders also made the point that they depended on the market for their livelihood.
In July, The Southern Star, carried a front-page report stating that Quills was to get a €3m make-over after Cork County Council granted the company planning permission for a new 7,000 sq ft retail space, as well as a coffee shop, restaurant and toilet facilities.
Padraig Quill said he had hoped to regularise the market as part of the planning application, but that was rejected by the planning authority.
The company was granted permission for the proposed new developments, as well as retention for 15 family-sized picnic tables in the car park.
But the grant of planning clearly rejects the application for ‘a material-change of use from a car park to an open-air market.’
Amongst the 29 conditions attached to the grant of planning, the local authority stated: ‘The mobile food and craft stalls with awnings overhead shall be removed.’
Over the summer, the market continued to be popular and one or more traders were drawn to set up in the village.
However, less than two weeks after the end of meteorological Summer, Ms Murphy told Judge Carroll last Thursday: ‘It is essential to have the matter brought back before the courts.’
Ms Murphy and Mr Power had initially sought a date to have the matter dealt with by Judge Treasa Kelly, but Judge Carroll demurred. ‘It might suit the non-performer to let it slide but this is another area of law,’ she said.
Judge Carroll said that if people were n t honouring the enforcement notice she would deal with it in her court and she adjourned the case, by consent, to Bandon District Court on Monday October 20th.
Speaking on behalf of Quills Retail Ltd, Mr Power told the judge: ‘There is going to be compliance,’ but he said it would take a few weeks before all matters were finalised. The judge’s final words were: ‘The agreement has to be implemented.’
(Funded under the Local Courts Reporting Scheme.)
