Swansea Council to broadcast Traveller site meeting on the web

From the South Wales Evening Post

A MEETING to discuss the future development of a Gypsy and Traveller site in Swansea is set to be broadcast on the web.

Swansea Council is meeting on Monday, October 21, at 4pm, to discuss controversial plans to create a second permanent Gypsy and Traveller site in the city because the existing site at Pantyblawd Road is full.

A three-month consultation on a five site shortlist ended in March 2013 and resulted in more than 3,000 responses along with a number of petitions.

And last week the council announced that it had whittled the decision down to two preferred choices: the former greyhound racing track in Fforestfach; and a site off Peniel Green Road in Llansamlet.

What is sure to be a lively debate will take place in the council chamber at the Civic Centre and will be broadcast via the council's website in an effort to ensure that the public has every opportunity to either attend or view the proceedings as there is only limited seating in the council chamber.

A live stream of the proceedings will also be shown in adjoining committee rooms to enable more residents to attend.

A council spokesman said: "Because of the high level of public interest in the issue, the council is making sure that everyone can get involved.

"We have organised for the full council meeting to be broadcast live on the web and we will be streaming the proceedings to another committee room in the civic centre. We want to avoid a situation where we have to turn members of the public away if the meeting is full. The only way we can do this is to invite the public to apply for a seat on a first come first serve basis.

"It's important we do everything we can to give the public access to this meeting."

Tickets for the live broadcast in the committee rooms will be available from 10am today.

The public will be able to view the mee
ting at www.swansea.gov.uk