SIR,

Would you buy one of the 400 new houses planned to be built on the flood plain along Wonastow Road?

A friend who lives just off Wonastow Road, on renewing his house insurance, has been asked to declare that: "Your property and the surrounding area (200 metres) have not suffered from or been affected by flooding at any time in the last 25 years and is not within 200 metres of a river, stream, tidal water or any other body of water".

As the Wonastow Road has often been flooded, he told the truth and the company immediately more than doubled his premium – from £220 to £480.

He tried another company which asked the same questions and he was then quoted nearly three times as much as his previous premium (£631).

Since the building of the new estate between Rockfield Road and Watery Lane, an area from Rolls Avenue to Brook Estate has been flooded for the first time in more than 70 years.

Some of the newly-built houses have also already been flooded.

If you were to buy one of the proposed 400 houses along Wonastow Road, should you tell lies and risk invalidating your insurance or should you pay the extra?

Monmouthshire County Council's (MCC) planning officer says the new estate will only flood once in a thousand years – tell that to the insurance companies.

Perhaps MCC should consider an insurance subsidy on the new estates which they are trying to build on the Monmouth alluvium.

Stephen Clarke

(Monmouth)