In a recent BBC programme, Liz Bentley of the Royal Meteorological Society said the damage caused by Storm Dennis was a “taste of things to come”.

One-in-100 year flooding events are now nearer 1-in-10 or less.

We know that Monmouth is prone to flooding. Parts of the town suffer regularly, and other areas are now being affected. The Watery Lane roundabout was recently flooded for days. The water couldn’t enter the River Monnow because that river couldn’t discharge into the River Wye. The Wye reached its highest ever recorded level, and if Liz Bentley is right, this record will be broken soon.

The Monnow itself has overtopped and flooded the bottom three fields of Vauxhall Fields twice in recent months.

So why have two sites on Vauxhall Fields been lumped together under Option ‘H’ as a ‘Strategic Growth Option’ for Monmouth in the Council’s consultation on the Revised Local Development Plan (RLDP)?

Previous planning applications have suggested building around 350 houses on the two sites. Roads, driveways and paved gardens are not noted for absorbing water, and then there’s the water being discharged by washing machines, baths, showers, dishwashers, and pressure washers.

All that water flows into the surface or wastewater systems which at times of flooding discharge their excess into the local river(s) which are already full of water.

Should Natural Resources Wales redraw our flood maps now, or is the Council trying to recreate Monmouth’s ‘Lost Lake’ as featured in the Beacon in June 2019?

Mr D W Owen (Monmouth)