The welcome news that the Minister for Housing and Local Government has refused the application for this huge development is great news to all sensible people in Raglan and its environs. It also has significant implications for all large scale applications in Monmouthshire.

Some readers may have little knowledge or understanding of the Well-being of Future Generations Act (the FG Act 2015) but this baby has teeth! It requires Welsh Ministers to ensure developments contribute towards improving the economic, social, environmental and cultural well-being of Wales (my emphasis). It obviously had been overlooked by the English developers and their advisers!

Both the minister and the inspector pointed to the lack of both transport and employment in the village as significant. The laughable contention by the applicant that new residents would be able to cycle to Abergavenny and Monmouth for work was given short shrift. Government is rightly trying to discourage car use.

The minister also condemned the potential use of agricultural land in grades 1, 2 and 3a. This is a significant protection of the green belt in Monmouthshire and a strong hint that large scale developments should be directed to the south of the county.

I would respectfully suggest to others involved in opposing significant developments that they learn from our experience;

Raise funds from those potentially affected. We raised in excess of £4,000.

Use the funds to employ expert professionals.

Ignore the minority voices in favour of the scheme for their own narrow interests.

Explain away claims of NIMBY-ism if that is the case.

Raglan people are not against development per se, so long as it does not put the character of our village at risk. It is very significant that some of the main objections to the scheme came from local traders.

Now we have to battle the draft LDP, formulated by Monmouthshire Planners, which typically slavishly follows the logic of the developer rather than the law.

David Pettit (Raglan)