£15k bill for advice on Swansea site plans - Glamorgan

From the South Wales Evening Post

EXTERNAL legal advice about the process for choosing a second Travellers’ site in Swansea cost £15,558.

James Goudie QC gave advice in relation to number of issues in the year preceding a council meeting in which the long-running issue was set to be decided.

At that meeting, in October last year, council officers recommended that the former greyhound track in Fforestfach and land off Peniel Green Road in Llansamlet were selected as sites for the county’s second Travellers’ site — and to seek planning permission for both.

If full council had voted for this recommendation, it would have been a huge step forward after years of whittling down hundreds of potential sites in the county. But before the matter could be determined, the Labour group put forward a motion that cabinet - to whom any decision was being referred - should henceforth consider private as well as public land for the second site.

In the days leading up to the meeting, council leader David Phillips said in an email leaked to the Post that he had “significant and fundamental” concerns over where the new site should be, adding it was vital the right decision was made. These concerns, he subsequently said, were “my personal views arrived at following careful consideration of the report going to council”.

The Labour motion was, on the night, passed unanimously.

But Liberal Democrat councillor Chris Holley said he wanted to know why Labour appeared to develop concerns about the process when a barrister - plus council lawyers - had been consulted for months beforehand.

“Right through the process it has been checked by an expensive barrister,” said Mr Holley.

He added that the authority now faced a situation where, as well as delaying the Travellers’ site decision, it might have to buy private land at a time when money was tight.

The Post asked Mr Holley why he had not resolved the matter when he was council leader. “We wanted to get it sorted as soon as possible,” he said. “We set up a working group - but site visits only took place a week before the (2012) election).”

Mr Phillips declined to comment when contacted by the Post.