Sir, At a public meeting called by County Clr. Jon Preston in Penally Village Hall last Wednesday, plans were shown for the proposed building of 45 self-catering chalets in the field behind the old Night Owl nightclub. Much concern was expressed by the many village residents who were at the meeting, on many points. Firstly there was anger at the inexcusable way that people whose land abutted the site had not been informed of the plans by Pembrokeshire County Council and secondly at the minimal time limit PCC had imposed for the registering of objections. County Clr. Jon Preston had taken it upon himself to facilitate the meeting and to invite Mr. Gerald Blain, the agent for the developers, to attend and to answer questions. However, it was soon evident that very few fundamental issues had been examined prior to the drawing of the plans and a frequent answer from Mr. Blain was "I'm sorry, I can't answer that" or "I'm sorry, I don't know." He did acknowledge that the development was outside the village's development plan, but felt that was not a problem. He agreed that it would increase the population of the village by at least 200 people, each chalet with an allowance of two cars. This would involve the building of new roads and alteration to existing village roads. It was obvious that the planners had not thoroughly addressed the crucial issues of sewerage and water supply and water run-off which already causes flooding in Trefloyne Lane. Many areas of the village are not on mains sewers, have no gas supply and a water supply so unpredictable that a neighbour's washing machine can interrupt a shower next door. The field on which they propose to build has a solid rock structure with a shallow earth overlay and from past experience I know the enormous amount of quarrying it took to build one dwelling in the area. Mr. Blain claimed that they had obtained an ecologist's report about the wildlife on the site, but it was quite clear that it had totally underestimated the number of badger setts surrounding the site and had allowed a working distance of only 20 metres from the entrance to a sett, which is the minimum advised, under law, for hand tool use only. Much greater distances are advised for light machine use and even greater, up to 100 metres or more, for heavy machine use. Yet they will be using machinery on the rock which will cause the utmost reverberation and distress to the badgers. Additionally, they will be introducing the other worst elements for badger colonies, which are lighting and noise (especially during the hours of dusk to dawn); cycle paths, cars and possibly dogs. No disturbance should be allowed between November and June when the badgers have their young, but this will be unavoidable because sound carries through the rock. They will be removing the natural foraging site for these creatures which will result in their digging for food in the gardens of the surrounding area and getting killed by the increased traffic on the roads they will try to cross. Badgers are protected by law, but developers will do everything in their power to circumvent it. The proposed site is very close to the important archaeological sites that constitute Hoyle's Mouth and Longbury Bank on Trefloyne land and yet no archaeologist's report had yet been sought. In other words, the whole plan has been rushed through at a time maybe when they think people will be away or too busy with other things to notice. It seems no thought has been given to the things that make this ancient and historically important village the attractive place it is and, having looked at the drawings of these glorified sheds, totally overcrowding the plot, I confess that my first thought was that it looked like a refugee camp.

Marcia Sivell,

Penally.