From This Is South Wales
A MEETING on the use of a former Swansea greyhound track to house Travellers has been branded racist.
An event is due to take place at 10am tomorrow (9/3/13) at the site of the former greyhound track on Ystrad Road in Fforestfach.
Organisers placed signs in the area to promote the event which is designed to deter councillors from deciding to choose the site as a second location for Travellers in Swansea.
Many of those signs have either been removed or defaced and in some cases with messages suggesting the event planned for tomorrow morning is racist.
Swansea mum Alyson Jones has played a key role in organising the protest and said the event was not designed as a racial attack.
Mrs Jones has a 10-year-old daughter who goes to school in Waunarlwydd and she and her family have lived in the area for 12 years.
She said: "The racism comments are wrong.
"We were not saying anything out of order."
Mrs Jones said the signs and posters were merely promotional tools for the protest and designed to encourage people living close to the proposed site to take part in consultation on the issue being run by Swansea Council.
She added: "There is a councillors' surgery in Waunarwlydd Community Centre after the protest and we will go straight to that to put our questions to the councillors.
"Then, next Thursday evening, we are arranging another meeting and one the following Thursday.
"These meetings will be at the Joiners Club in Ystrad Road."
A meeting organised by Gorseinon Town Council is also due to be held in the Brighton Road Club in Gorseinon on Tuesday, March 12, at 7pm, to discuss responses to the consultation regarding two sites in the town which could potentially become home to Travellers.
More than 500 people turned up to a meeting to discuss the proposed sites off Heol y Mynydd at the Gorseinon Institute on Tuesday, February 26.
The meeting had to be moved to the Brighton Road Club to accommodate the audience.
People living in Swansea have until the end of March to give views on proposals by Swansea Council to create a second Gypsy and Traveller site.
Swansea has only one legal site which is full so the council is looking at providing further accommodation.
A three month consultation is now under way seeking views on the work carried out so far in the search for the most appropriate location for the site.
The local authority is running an exhibition at Swansea's Civic Centre from Monday, March 18, until Thursday, March 28.
Swansea Council has also set up a dedicated website for people to register their views and provided copies of all the online information at libraries throughout Swansea for viewing along with comment forms.
Council leader David Phillips said: "It's important that we give everyone the opportunity to have their say on the process we are using to find a new site."
Too right it was racist. Signs were posted saying "no Gypsies" were left for all to say. These were removed by members of the local community who support the Gypsy and Traveller communities.
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