Save community

TORFAEN council won’t be satisfied until Llantarnam is totally ruined. Prime development land sold for housing and who pays the price? The students at the primary and secondary schools, and the local community. The local councillors made a feeble argument about increased traffic - no doubt muzzled by the Labour group. The issue of the clock tower at Llantarnam school site is a red herring - it could easily be kept and integrated into the new estate - the developers can foot the bill of refurbishment since they will be making a killing on the development. A beautiful house has been demolished out of hand at the Llantarnam crossroad to be replaced by a hideous block of apartments. We have estates that look like something out of Stepford Wives - all the same - featureless and no investment in the future because they won’t last that long! Then there’s the proposal for the Oakfield Junior school site - three storey flats are not in keeping - all the flats around here are two storey. There’s the loss of amenity and open space (both school sites provided public amenity over 50 years!). The environmental effects include changes to hydrology which will affect the ancient oak trees, etc. Birds have already been displaced to our garden because of the building disturbance. I ask the question - are any of the Torfaen councillors aware of this? Will any of them be going to live near these developments? Of course not! But the rest of us can just put up with it. The final consideration is that there are no facilities in Llantarnam to service these estates - parking is already a problem - no doctor, shops, post office, etc. Money needs to be spent on bringing the infrastructure of Llantarnam and Oakfield areas up to the standards enjoyed by Llanyravon and Croesyceiliog. Time to overturn the dictatorship in Pontypool and get some real democracy and power to local communities! We are not getting fair treatment and I believe it’s inverted snobbery on the part of the council.