Staff safety fears prompt closure of Athlone centre

A family resource centre in Athlone's Battery Heights has been forced to close due to concerns over the safety of its staff amid worsening anti-social behaviour, threats, and intimidation in the area.

The Athlone Family Resource Centre had been operating in two houses in Battery Heights, and, on November 8, a car was petrol-bombed outside one of the houses in the early hours of the morning.

Cllr Aengus O'Rourke, the chairperson of the resource centre, said he had regularly witnessed drug dealing in the area and had recently been threatened in notes and messages scrawled in lipstick on his car.

He said it was no longer sustainable for the centre to continue operating in this environment and, as result, at a meeting of the centre’s board early last week, the decision was taken to suspend its services for now.

Cllr O'Rourke said the staff had operated in challenging times previously but the situation had deteriorated and left them feeling vulnerable in the centre, where one of its houses is located in a cul-de-sac at the rear of Battery Heights.

"When you have cars on fire right outside the front door of the centre, the staff quite rightly asked the question of me, 'if something kicks off here someday how do we get out?'

"People have been seen carrying long-blade knives in the area. There have been threats issued online, with certain elements ‘calling out’ other elements over social media. It's a desperate state of affairs.

"The staff have been resilient and have stood up in the face of a lot of difficult circumstances in the past. We never thought that it would get to this stage."

The centre, which was formerly known as the Monsignor McCarthy Family Resource Centre, was established in Battery Heights over a decade ago and has been providing a range of services to the community in areas such as positive mental health, literacy, art, computer skills, and mother-and-child groups. 

Cllr O'Rourke said rival drug factions were operating in the locality and there had been spells in the past when tensions among them would rise and fall.

"Going on past experience, we were hoping that tensions would ease off again but that hasn’t happened and, in fact, it’s got worse. In recent months it’s become more difficult and it seems like the acts of aggression have become more violent and threatening."

He said it was disheartening for everybody involved that the centre had to suspend its services due to "thugs who think nothing of creating havoc in the area where they live."

It's now hoped that the centre will move outside of the Battery Heights estate itself and into to a house, Woodlands, on the Battery Road.

A planning application for a change of use, to turn this house into a resource centre, was submitted to the council earlier this year and a decision on it is due later this week.

Cllr O'Rourke said the plans were submitted because there had been a growing feeling that the centre's location, at houses 16 and 63 Battery Heights, had been "working against us in terms of service delivery."

"The centre relies on people coming to it to avail of our services. Recently it's come to the point where people said, well, I’m not going up that hill (to use the centre) with all that’s going on."

He said there were three staff working at the centre along with a number of TUS and CE scheme workers who had been maintaining the appearance of Battery Heights and removing litter from the area.

Tusla, the child and family agency, funds the centre's work and Cllr O'Rourke said it agreed to continue providing funding while the facility is closed.

"We met with Tusla last Wednesday and they were shocked to hear what the staff have had to endure. They said we took the right decision (to suspend services) and assured us that they would continue to fund us while we are suspended.

"They support our move to a new location and see that as being a logical next step."

Cllr O'Rourke has been outspoken about street crime and drugs in Athlone, but he said the town was not unique as these issues were taking a toll on provincial towns throughout Ireland.

"I think that more young people, unfortunately, are engaging in the use and supply of illegal drugs," he said.

"There seems to be a new tier of anti-social behaviour emerging, which is creeping into criminality. We have drug use, drug transactions, shoplifting, counter-jumps, the type of things that we haven’t really heard much about in recent years.

"That is probably more pronounced in areas of disadvantage, and my view in a national sense is that it’s down to under-funding, particularly of An Garda Siochana but also of community organisations and groups like Merchants Quay who support people who have difficulties."

Sergeant Andrew Haran said Gardai in Athlone were investigating the petrol bomb attack in Battery Heights on November 8. 

He said that a Fiat Punto had been badly damaged in the incident and was being analysed. A number of interviews have been carried out by the Gardai in connection with the incident.