Residents and Travellers face possible legal proceedings from Clare County Council after they joined forces to prevent the council starting work on an emergency halting site near the north Clare town of Ennistymon.
Early yesterday residents blocked council machinery from entering the site earmarked to provide emergency accommodation for 17 adults and 37 children currently living on the roadside in north Clare.
The council recently enacted emergency legislation allowing it to bypass planning laws in order to accommodate the Travellers.
A spokesman for the residents said they were determined, along with the Travellers, that no emergency site would be located there.
"We stopped the council moving on the site two weeks ago and in spite of three meetings held with officials since then, they have been unable to give a timeframe in which the site would be removed," he said.
The director of service for housing, Mr Tom Coughlan, confirmed yesterday that the council was seeking legal advice on the blockade. In the past, it has secured court injunctions barring residents from preventing the council carrying out its work.
Travellers were also considering taking a High Court injunction to prevent the council from pressing ahead with its plan, while a number of Travellers joined residents at the blockade yesterday.
Mr Martin Conway, a Fine Gael councillor, called on the council to negotiate with the residents.
