SIR,
The plans are out there, the studies have been submitted and, in a very short while, the deposit stage for Monmouthshire Local Development Plan will be voted on.
The next step is planning permission for 400 houses and 30,000 square metres of light industrial development in the fields along Wonastow Road.
As far as the site owners (the Welsh Assembly Government) are concerned, the development is a done deal.
The consequences of this development could include congestion around the town, parking grid-locks and school class numbers rising.
Then there's the disruption and the road works.
And then there is the site itself. It comprises 27 hectares, of which some eight hectares lie within zone C1, a floodplain, and the remainder in zone B, an area known to have been flooded in the past.
Inherent hazards, relating to permeability and leaching of pollutants, the presence below the site of an aquifer, and the run-off potential following concreting over of vast areas, are dismissed as being of no justifiable concern, or only suitable for further exploration at a later stage of development.
The report is confident in stating that "the proposed Wonastow Road site would not increase flows within Wonastow Brook, and will have no impact on the operation of the current flood defence system protecting the town".
I believe this is a problem in the making, and not just confined to the residents of Overmonnow.
Please attend the public meeting about this matter which is being held in Rockfield Community Centre at 6pm on Thursday 20th January.
M Jones
(Monmouth)