Monmouthshire County Council is facing mounting anger from residents, campaigners and councillors after thousands of objections to its draft Local Development Plan (RLDP) were dismissed without significant changes.

This plan would see houses built on environmentally sensitive locations at Dixton Road, Monmouth, Mounton Road, Chepstow, Little Mill and Burrium Gate, Usk.

Monmouthshire County Council carried out a six-week public consultation in November and December 2025 receiving 4,000 representations (mainly objections) from 956 residents and organisations.

Despite the large number of objections received the plan was unchanged. Most of the objections were rejected with a “No change needed” response.

In its official statement, the council said, “All of the amendments are considered to be minor and non-material in nature and, as a result, no focused changes to the RLDP are proposed”.

That position has angered many who took part in the consultation. Dr Huw Williams, a Monmouth resident, said “When you have 4,000 representations, you know that something is seriously wrong. You would expect the plan to be significantly modified. Instead, they seem to be brushing off public concern. Does the plan represent the views of the people in the community or the views of the people in power?”

The consultation process was also heavily criticised.

Monmouth resident Rebecca Cunningham criticised the time that councillors were given to read the documents before the scrutiny meeting. The full report pack of 15,000 pages was distributed to councillors and the public just 3 days before the meeting. “At an average reading speed of 100 pages per day, this report would take over six months to read”, she said. Some councillors in the scrutiny meeting admitted that they had not read the full report.

Frank Brehany, a local author and campaigner on Air Quality said. “I am deeply concerned about how the town’s air quality is monitored and reported and the potential impact that current and additional traffic will have on the health of the town’s citizens.”

The plan was robustly criticised by a number of prominent organisations including The Wye Valley National Landscape (AONB), Monmouth Town Council, Gwent Wildlife Trust and Natural Resources Wales.

Concern was also expressed about the impact on Monmouthshire’s Rare bats. Responding to a developer bats survey that showed ‘limited bat activity’, resident Jonty Pearce highlighted the results from the Dixton Citizen Science Bat Project. This showed that of the rarest bats in Wales, the Greater Horsehoe Bat, had been detected at the Dixton Road site 893 times in August 2025.

The Habitat Regulations Assessment of the plan was also heavily criticised claiming that “no adverse effect would arise on Habitat sites.”

Natural Resources Wales were unable to agree with this conclusion.

Ann Langton, a retired statistician, said that official Welsh Government statistics show that, over the plan period, the population is due to increase by 5 per cent. She queried why the council is increasing the amount of housing by 15 per cent.

The Replacement Local Development Plan will be voted on at the full council meeting on 23rd October 2025. The vote is expected to be close.