Planners order soup kitchen to cease

Date Published: 22-Nov-2012

BY ENDA CUNNINGHAM

The city’s planning department has issued a legal warning to the operator of a free meals ‘soup kitchen’ on Queen Street.

Planners issued an official warning letter to Oliver Williams from Ballyboggan in Athenry that his ‘Twist’ charity soup kitchen is an unauthorised development, and that if it continues to operate, an Enforcement Notice will be issued.

They ordered that the business should cease operating immediately, and all signage be removed.

However, Mr Williams subsequently applied for planning permission for the retention of a change of use from a garage/warehouse to a food kitchen outlet.

The official warning letter was sent on November 16, and permission was subsequently sought.

“In the event of you failing to comply with the terms of this warning letter, the planning authority may, where it considers that unauthorised development has been, or may be carried out, within 12 weeks of service of this letter, issue an Enforcement Notice,” planners said.

In his application, Mr Williams said the soup kitchen feeds around 70 people per day.

The café – named after the Dickens character Oliver Twist – was set up during the Volvo Ocean Race. Mr Williams, a helicopter pilot, had the idea to set up a charity service because he had fallen on hard times himself as a teenager in London.

He has since gone on to open a second premises in Athlone.

Mr Williams has come under criticism locally because of ‘bucket’ collections on city streets, which were described by Cllr Donal Lyons as a “nuisance”.

The matter was raised at a recent meeting of the City Joint Policing Committee, where Gardaí said there was a case pending over unauthorised collections.

However, Mr Williams said his collections are “100% legal” and that under the 1995 Casual Trading Act, he is allowed sell pens in lieu of donations.

All of the food is donated by local businesses, and the operating costs are met by the fundraising.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.