Gypsy transit site will be at Monks Brook

1.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 31st Jul 2007

Cllr Liz Mizon

Now it is agreed that Southampton's Gypsy transit site will be at Monks Brook it is time for me to take stock. As Cabinet Member responsible, did I do right? Several questions need answering.

"Should we be having a site at all? Will it be good for the city?" Legally we have to have one but it will also be good for the areas that have had illegal encampments, or could have had, as these should stop. It will be good for the Travellers, giving them a legal place to stop - surely an important point.

"Should we, the Lib Dems have done started it under our watch?" Well, there's a question! The answer is, not if you want to get re-elected in the ward where the site is, and other wards probably don't care. - so electorally not a winner, but right for Southampton.

"Is Monk's Brook the best place?" Well, it came out top

after careful checking city-wide, and no-one has come up with a viable alternative, not even the Conservative councillors who have been so vocal. It is after all, a derelict piece of motorway land fill, surrounded by motorway, main railway line and dual carriage way, and the site furthest away from houses. Yes it is a green space but it is an empty space that is not a sport's field or a park. That in a city like Southampton is not easy to find.

"Should the consultation have been handled differently?" If I were to do this again, heaven forbid, I would get councillors involved sooner in the confidential appraisal of sites. Not that the process was flawed, it wasn't, but to make all Parties part of the process and take away any cause for doubt.

As to providing earlier consultation for the public - can you imagine? I can see the headlines in the Echo, "46 Possible sites for a Gypsy site - is there one in your neighbourhood?" It would have meant Monks Brook-type upset 46 times.

Local people were understandably anxious about having Gypsies living near-by. Who can blame them? Some Gypsies behave very badly, and these are the ones we hear about. To protect them there is now a comprehensive site management in place. If evidence from other authorities with managed sites is right residents soon forget the site is there.

So I would not have changed much. The process was objective and democratic, and yes, I would live near by, as Councillor Milton will be doing.