SIR,

Regarding the letter from RW Bradley in last weeks Beacon, where to start?

It is filled with so many inaccuracies, not to mention spelling mistakes – Owain Glyndwr and bilingualism are two corrections – I fear using up most of the letters page in response, but in sympathy for your readership, I will attempt to be brief.

I don't quite understand the vitriol behind such an outburst. Let's start by dealing with some facts:

Monmouth and Monmouthshire are in Wales. The native language of the country is Welsh. It may not be spoken by the majority, but that is not an argument to extinguish it.

Your correspondent might well muse 'God help us' and thank goodness the men of the church did, for it is widely acknowledged that William Morgan's translation of the bible into Welsh, was the saviour of the language.

Welsh is the oldest living language in Europe and was the spoken word of these Isles long before English became the majority.

I dispute that the dual language is the 'reason why your council tax is so high' – there is absolutely no link to this and is complete guesswork. The guestimate offered for the production of bilingual literature represents a miniscule 0.006 per cent of the Welsh Assembly's budget

Referencing Owain Glyndwr as one of the reasons that parts of Monmouth are over developed is non-sensical. It is worth noting however that Owain Glyndwr was ranked Number 23 in a 2002 BBC survey of Greatest Britons, ahead of such luminaries as our current Queen, Charles Dickens, John Wesley, Jane Austen and Henry VIII.

Expressing the view that 'the fanatical few would make it law to speak Welsh' is pure fantasy and spurious at best – no democratic country dictates the language spoken in it.

So people of this lovely, great town and county, let's have some balance and non emotional musings in the letters pages. There is so much to enjoy about Monmouth and life here – let's embrace it all and move forward, regardless of our spoken and written language. Diolch yn fawr.

GW Roberts

(Monmouth)