MTY (Merthyr Tydfil) scraper failing — ModGov server returning 503

[symroe]

Error (2026-06-09)

Timeout connecting to democracy.merthyr.gov.uk
Duration: 30.3s

Investigation

https://democracy.merthyr.gov.uk returns HTTP 503 Service Unavailable — the server is up at the TCP/TLS level but returning a 503 body:

HTTP/2 503
content-length: 239
content-type: text/plain

The main Merthyr website (https://www.merthyr.gov.uk/council/councillors-and-committees/find-your-councillor/) still redirects to http://democracy.merthyr.gov.uk/mgMemberIndex.aspx?bcr=1&LLL=0, confirming the URL has not changed — the council is still on ModGov and this domain is still the intended target.

Scraper metadata.json uses http://democracy.merthyr.gov.uk (HTTP). Both the HTTP and HTTPS endpoints are unavailable.

Fix patterns ruled out

1. HTTPS migration — HTTPS returns 503; HTTP times out. Not a URL change issue.
2. verify_requests = False — Server is returning 503 before TLS cert becomes relevant
3. http_lib = "playwright" — 503 response; changing HTTP client won't help
4. URL changes — Main website still references democracy.merthyr.gov.uk; no alternative URL found

What needs to happen

Check whether democracy.merthyr.gov.uk is temporarily down or permanently decommissioned. If Merthyr has migrated to a new ModGov instance or a different CMS, the scraper needs updating with the new URL/selectors.