AM joins fight over Gypsy site - Glamorganshire

From the South Wales Evening Post

RESIDENTS fighting to save green space in Gorseinon have won the backing of an AM.

Two areas in the town are on a short-list for a second permanent Gypsy Traveller site — the rear of Parc Melyn Mynach and the proposed cemetery.

Byron Davies, regional Assembly Member for South Wales West, has called on Swansea Council to scrap the short-list and go back to the drawing board.

He has written to the local authority, backing the protesters and calling for a rethink.

Mr Davies said that the site at Melyn Mynach was considered a leisure area for Gorseinon.

And he said that the second Gorseinon site had initially been set aside for use as a cemetery. The existing cemetery at Kingsbridge is nearly full and he has asked what provision the council is making to provide an alternative site.

Mr Davies added: "It has also come to my attention that located south of Parc Melyn Mynach is a 12th-century mill known as Monk's Mill. The proximity of this building to the proposed site is of concern as it is felt that only further destruction of the mill will occur (by building on this site)."

Mr Davies said that the proposed sites at the greyhound stadium and at Swansea Vale were designated as special areas of conservation, rural development or countryside for employment or commercial use. The shortlisted sites in Swansea Vale and Penderry also abut residential areas.

The AM said the position of the new site should be somewhere away from existing residential areas and most employment sites. He urged the council to look at brownfield sites, avoiding greenfield wherever possible, with "a buffer between these sites and existing houses to avoid noise and visual effects". Plans to create a second permanent Gypsy Traveller site in Swansea have been out for public consultation for the past few months. That consultation period ends on Sunday.

As part of that consultation, the council published all of its documents relating to the creation of the short-list.

The publication of the documents followed an internal and external review of the process through which the sites were whittled down.

Separate legal reviews of claims that an agreement was made by the old West Glamorgan County Council to not place a second site in Llansamlet were carried out by the council's monitoring officer and one of the UK's leading barristers in constitutional matters. They concluded no such agreement had taken place.

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