SIR, The two excellent letters in last week's Beacon highlight the major flaws with the present plans. The upbeat report in the previous week's Beacon was issued by Monmouthshire County Council in order to suppress objections. There is still no definite funding for the pool and there is still an open plan design for school which will be a nightmare for staff and pupils alike (except, of course, for the attention seeking disruptive pupils). Why was this plan adhered to when Caldicot, after proper consultation with parents (which was denied to Monmouth parents), threw out the open plan design? The situation with regards to funding for the pool was dire initially but I was horrified by the WAG budget report last Tuesday that local council budgets are to be reduced by £192.6million. MCC had already prepared us to blame WAG for lack of funding for the pool but in fact they had not secured definite funding before they made the decision to choose Option 2 which meant demolishing the pool. They knew further cuts were in the pipeline so I find it unbelievable that they would go ahead with this decision. A recent report in the Beacon spoke of the excellent award the staff and pupils of the Comprehensive had gained in their present, inferior building. It is the first secondary school in the UK to receive the Restorative Justice Council's Quality Standards Mark. This, in brief, encourages the class as a whole to deal with conflict as a group, for pupils to confront their own bad behaviour and discuss its impact on victims. How difficult would this have been in an open plan situation? Academic and behavioural results have apparently been excellent in the school and town. This surely shows that, although in need of replacement, the building does not need to be a grand edifice. Is it really too late to do anything about this Option 2 decision? Fay McGrath (Monmouth)