SIR,

Further to the recent letters about the Meend Farm fiasco from the rightly indignant young people of the area, may I also add that the farmhouse has now been empty since February.

Surely it could have been let on a short term basis, maybe a six-month tenancy, as there is a shortage of rented properties.

This would have been bringing in an income, and ensured the house was kept dry and not stripped of its copper fittings.

After all, the police can't be everywhere, can they?

I agree that it should be put up for auction properly if it has to be sold.

I have nothing against Kate Humble, in fact I have enjoyed some of her programmes in the winter, but I wonder what will happen to the farmhouse now as I believe she is going to stay in Penallt.

I have always had a high regard for Monmouthshire smallholdings. My mother was one of the first children to be born on a smallholding in 1921 and some of my family still farm one, where I used to spend some of my holidays as a child.

I don't know if the council have changed the rules (again) but I always understood that the tenant of a smallholding was not allowed to sub-let the land (especially for horse grazing) as I understand a prominent councillor has.

Gerald Richardson

(Penallt)