PEOPLE who live in the Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty are being invited to have their say in the future management of the area.

The consultation draft of the management plan for the AONB has now been published. This is the first update to the plan for 10 years and the new plan will cover the next five years (2004 to 2009).

The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 makes this a statutory document for the local authorities, and gives all public bodies the duty to have regard for the AONB.

The management plan has been informed by feedback from a series of public meetings last summer and from workshops and responses to questionnaires.

The draft will be posted to interested groups and organisations and it will also be available at local council offices and the libraries in Hereford, Ross-on-Wye, Coleford, Monmouth, Chepstow, Lydney and Cinderford.

As part of the public consultation process there will be an open meeting at 7pm on Monday, May 19 at Symonds Yat West. This will give everyone the chance to hear the plan explained and to discuss it, before giving formal comments as part of the consultation process.

The public consultation process will last until the end of June.

A finalised document will then be presented to the Joint Advisory Committee of the Wye Valley AONB, before being adopted by the Forest of Dean District Council, Herefordshire Council, Gloucestershire County Council and Monmouthshire County Council.

It will then be submitted to the Countryside Agency, Countryside Council for Wales, English Nature and the Department for Food and Rural Affairs, in time for the statutory deadline next March.

•Anyone who would like to receive a copy of the consultation draft or who would like an invitation to the open evening, can contact the AONB office on 01600 713977. The meeting is open to all, but places must be requested in advance.