Sir,

I felt sick last week reading the Beacon.  Can Monmouthshire County Council really do this?

Amendments to an already highly controversial LDP to actually increase the number of houses they want to dump on us on a low-lying swampy flood-plain, and, to ignore the toothless protestations of the Environment Agency against building on the designated C1 part of the site as long as "assessment has been carried out that demonstrates that the consequences of flooding in these areas are acceptable".

Acceptable to whom? Ask the residents of Ruthin how much assurance they received about the safety of their lovely new homes, built on a flood plain.

Then I turn the page to read about a  consultation on flood risk that MCC are kindly going to involve us in. They can then measure and advise to their heart's content, ignoring the fact that the town will be drowning, in every sense of the word, under the impact of the consequences of their ill-advised LDP.

I would ask that our Conservative county councillors act with more independence and listen to their constituents rather than their party bosses, and if not, let's hope we have more independent candidates of quality, such as Bob Hayward and Alan Wintle to vote for next time.

Lesley Gann

(Monmouth)