MADAM,

Everyone to whom I have spoken about the building of the new Monmouth Comprehensive School has shared my concern over its development.

The current site is not ideal, due to traffic pollution from the nearby dual carriageway. Pupils will daily breathe a mix of nitrogen oxide, ozone, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, volatile organic compounds (a quarter of which will be from the type of solvents used in the manufacture of paints and paint thinners), benzene (exposure to which can damage bone marrow, depress the immune system, and cause leukaemia), and airborne particulates (which can aggravate asthma).

Insufficient consideration has been given to a better positioning for the campus, namely, in the vicinity of Rockfield, especially as further housing in that area will raise student numbers. Children could then have walked to school without having to negotiate the extra health hazards of Monnow Street. It beggars belief that this consideration has been overlooked or ignored. Such anxieties are not based on speculation but fact. It is a source of great disappointment that Monmouthshire County Council have turned a blind eye to this threat to our youngsters’ well-being. One suspects, however, that even if 100 letters such as this had been made public, the scheme would still have gone ahead.

Paul Groves

(Monmouth)