A WILDLIFE trust chief told Monmouthshire residents that they have to "fight to make a noise" about their concerns on the proposed M4 relief road at a drop-in session at Magor Marsh.

Members of the Gwent Wildlife Trust hosted the three-hour session on the proposed plans and their impact on the Gwent Levels at their education centre.

The trust estimate that between 80 and 100 people attended the three-hour session, with around 30 attending a talk from the trust's chief executive Ian Rappel.

Attendees nodded in solemn agreement as Mr Rappel outlined the broad scope of the Gwent Levels' importance to the surrounding areas.

"It's very much the case that people take the landscape around them for granted," said Mr Rappel.

"We at the trust believe it's one of Wales' best landscapes."

Magor Marsh's intricate reen and ditch system acts as a deterrent against flooding while also reducing pollution levels, said Mr Rappel.

He added that some of Wales' most interesting archaeological finds have come from the area, notably in the mud flats where age-old footprints have been preserved.

He said: "There's nothing like the levels in Wales, there's a real history between man and nature here."

It also has educational purposes, with Magor's education centre hosting more than 2,500 schoolchildren a year.

It is claimed the Welsh Government-backed Black Route will carve through the habitats of more than 150 nationally notable invertebrates as well as several species of animals and birds.

"This is a 1960s solution," said Mr Rappel.

"They're spending a huge proportion of their budget just for the sake of saving people a few minutes on the motorway."

Mr Rappel also suggested that the sizeable cost of the project would be better spent elsewhere, suggesting an intervention at the steelworks in Port Talbot.

With the deadline for responses to the plans fast approaching, Mr Rappel urged those in attendance make their stance clear, saying: "Silence is seen as approval, you've got to fight to make a noise."