Regarding your article in last week's Review "We're hatin' it", reporting on the public meeting at Shire Hall, Monmouth, your readers may have been left with the impression that the main objection to development on this site relates to the involvement of McDonalds. I attended the meeting and thought that on the whole, the public response was measured and considered. A number of bona fide planning objections to development on this site were put forward – highway concerns, congestion, increased air pollution, flooding, possible lack of satisfactory onsite parking, impact on this important gateway to Wales and impact on the Wye Valley AONB, to name a few.

Events of the last week in Monmouth have underlined the risks associated with building in the floodplain and the creation of impermeable surfaces within it.

There are proper arguments against this proposal, and to relate them to the identity of one retailer does not do justice to the true merits of the case of those who oppose it.

– Karen Davies, Newland.