SOS Easkey Needs You!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=GBwq1Znwvoc

SOS: EASKEY NEEDS YOU!

WE NEED FUNDS TO DEFEND AND PROTECT OURSELVES!

Have you, your friends or family ever felt bullied, powerless, voiceless or threatened in your community? That is how the people of Easkey feel because of Easkey Community Council (ECC). This ‘Community Council’ is an un-elected body which has been in existence for over 30 years. The Chairman, Treasurer and Secretary have not changed in all those years. Currently only 11 directors and no members are listed at Companies Registration Office and with the Charities Regulator. ECC is, in reality, a private company (now a Registered Charity). We believe that a community council should be a democratic body working transparently for the benefit of the entire community, and that the officers should change every 3 years. This is not the case with ECC.


This GoFundMe is to raise money for legal counsel and advice. There are many areas where legal help is crucial if Easkey wants to move away from the current culture of intimidation and bullying, and concentrate instead on realising its wonderful potential. Legal advice would help investigate issues raised by the recent Whistleblower’s Report and scrutinise the many areas of concern that Sligo County Council and other statutory bodies are refusing to address, for example planning issues and financial anomalies regarding the amounts of public funding ECC has received. There are also questions regarding sewage pollution in the village, widely believed to be linked to ECC’s campsite.

We are very concerned that in October 2019 ECC changed its constitution allowing itself to appoint solicitors and counsel so that its directors can take all & sundry to court. We need to take this seriously. Various members of the community have already received many solicitors’ letters and one has received a court summons. This is, at the very least, harrassment and intimidation. If our neighbours are brought to court by ECC, legal advice will be necessary to help them defend themselves. As a community we want to stand by people who are being picked on for very questionable reasons (see below).


In October 2019, ECC also changed its constitution so that it need admit only 25 members in total. Originally there was provision for 500 members, drawn from the local area. Yet, last October, while it was in the process of changing its constitution regarding membership, ECC agreed with Sligo County Council’s CEO that the company would admit 51 new members, and had, in fact, just accepted approx 70 membership applications plus the required €30 membership fee pp.  As of August 2020 none of these applicants have been admitted or received their money back. 


The 3 local residents who are currently receiving solicitors’ letters and a court summons from ECC have done nothing except live their day to day lives. Unfortunately for them, their homes back onto what are now the community centre grounds. Without their knowledge or consent, two of these people had 6ft high, block walls constructed across the ends of their gardens by ECC. These walls have sealed off a historic right of way dating back to when the grounds were an open field. The walls have prevented traditional access for rubbish removal, fire escape, oil deliveries etc. One individual demolished this wall built across her garden (the wall had indisputably been built on her land), and re-instated a gate to replace the one that ECC had removed. This individual is now being sued by ECC. The person in question is a widow, and, if this action persists unchallenged, could lose her home.


Another individual who was similarly blocked in by a wall (constructed at 5am one morning), has received several solicitor’s letters, including one threatening action against his 12 year-old son who climbed over the wall onto Community Centre property to retrieve his football. Legal action was threatened if the boy did this again. This man’s family have been bullied and harassed by ECC for a number of years, to the detriment of his family life. ECC also removed their business from him because he objected to them building a shed against the wall they had constructed. He objected as he feared for the loss of a safe, available exit (if a six foot wall can be called an exit) in the event of fire in his premises. This man, his wife and three young children may need to defend themselves in any kind of legal case and could stand to lose home and livelihood.  


A third person in the village has also received numerous solicitor’s letters including 5 that threaten legal action against her. ECC wanted to move the County Council bottle banks up against this individual’s garden wall, even though this would have brought the recycling closer to her house than the 50m permitted by law. She requested ECC not to place the bottle banks against her boundary wall. She also owns a gated driveway leading down the side of her house into what is now the Community Centre car park. ECC has a right to access this driveway for maintenance purposes only – ie to paint the gable of the unit next door, which it owns. Following her request regarding the bottle banks, and without her knowledge or consent, ECC changed the locks on this gate and started to send her solicitor’s letters. They have threatened to take her to court if she continues to use the driveway as an entrance to her home, or parks her car on it, although she has the deeds proving that she owns it, and has historically used this entrance to her property since she moved in nearly 20 years ago. She has so far received more than 25 letters. This woman lives on her own and has felt so intimidated (worried even when someone knocks on the front door), that she is considering moving away from the village where she was born and raised. If she has to defend herself in court, she could also lose her home. 


These three people today. Who might be next?  


As ECC purports to represent the whole community, these solicitors’ letters and legal cases are being instigated in our name, but without consultation or our consent. Would any of us agree to take such cases against members of our own community? Also, as ECC is a company, it stands to lose nothing by taking people to court, even if it loses the case.  It is worth remembering that we, the local community, have been contributing financially to ECC for years, through our contributions to their fund raising efforts. Have we just been paying for the stick that is now beating us?


Please donate to this GoFundMe so that we, the people of Easkey, can defend ourselves, our heritage and our environment as necessary, seeking proper legal advice and clarity regarding issues that are of concern, in the hope of resolving them. Then we can go back to making Easkey a fabulous place in a fabulous location for all to enjoy. 


Everything about this Go Fund Me will be fully transparent, and should any donated funds NOT be needed for any legal purpose, those funds will either be returned to the donors, OR, if the donor prefers, will be put towards a project that will actually benefit Easkey, and will be CHOSEN AND VOTED ON by the people of Easkey parish. 


Enough is Enough!

Easkey Needs Our Help!

EASKEY NEEDS YOUR HELP!