HANDS up all of you who want to live near a prison, a sewage works, or a treatment centre for drug addicts.

Hands up all those who think we need them.

Enough said.

There are facilities we need in a city that residents will say they don't want in their area. Is that a good enough reason for a council to say it will not build them? No, the council has the responsibility to find the best site for any facility and manage it well enough to minimise the effect on local people.

The plan to put the gypsy transit site at Monks Brook is a case in point. As a result of listening to local people's concerns a very comprehensive management plan has been written, but the site must go ahead. Monks Brook is clearly the best place and the decision had been democratically approved by full council for many months.

The Conservatives had no right to make promises they could not keep. Shame on them that opposition councillors had to insist before they would do what is in the city's best interests.

COUNCILLOR LIZ MIZON, Southampton City Council.