Sir, What a way to have to start the New Year! A little corner of heaven or a virtual war zone? That's the choice Manorbier Community Council will have to make for the community at their meeting on Thursday, January 5, when members of the public will be invited to take part and air their views on the planning application submitted to the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority, by the Manorbier Air Defence Range, to commence night firing of the high velocity missiles (HVM's). In attendance will be representatives of the MOD, who will give a briefing on the proposal, along with members of their acoustics company and MOD environmental staff. Also expected to attend will be Nick Ainger MP, along with Christine Gwyther AM, who have been invited by residents of the community who voiced their concerns to them, not just about the effect of the planned night firing, but also current daytime levels of noise and vibration, and additionally the ever-increasing  disturbance caused by low flying exercises by military aircraft. Also in attendance to take questions from the public will be Catherine Milner, a senior planning officer from the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority, accompanied by a representative from the public protection division of  Pembrokeshire County Council, who have also been involved with monitoring noise levels. Many letters and petitions objecting to the application on the grounds of noise nuisance/ pollution, vibration and the welfare of the community, especially regarding children's hearing being subjected to extremely high and dangerous levels of impact noise, have been submitted to the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority, and additionally to the Child Commissioner for Wales. Resulting from these concerns raised by parents, a member from the Child Commissioner for Wales will also attend. This is probably one of the most controversial planning applications that the Manorbier Community Council will ever have to make a decision on, and many residents will be looking to them to refuse the application. The MOD have in the last 15 years or so turned the ADR into a centre of excellence for missile training and more, introducing state-of-the-art technology HVMs, that travel way above the speed of sound, but unfortunately emit health threatening levels of noise (remember the problems with Concord and its sonic booms) and the much resented Banshee drone target aircraft (very aptly named). After reading World Health Organisation reports of noise and its effects, I have grave concerns for the possible damage psychologically and to the hearing of the young people, both in the community and those schoolchildren (up to 50 at a time) staying at the Youth Hostel, which is probably in a more direct line than our estate and may be subjected to levels in excess of the 122 dbs experienced here. I am amazed the MOD didn't, for the protection of the Youth Hostel's clients, insist monitoring taking place at this site, but maybe they were frightened by what results may have been recorded there. Personally, I would like to see a public inquiry (as happened at Otterburn in the north-east of England) into the whole issue of the use of the range, its dangers and its close proximity to the community. The MOD rely heavily on the fact "firing will only take place on 20 nights per year, including some Saturdays, with a similar reduction in daytime firing", what they haven't mentioned much in their report is their get-out clause where it says "firing is limited to 20 nights per year, unless operational requirements dictate increase training needs," so more evening firing will be required and the times and number of rounds fired will have to be increased. Additionally, if firing is not completed on one night in any one week, additional nights will result in the same week. This gives the MOD a free run to do what they like, when they like and at what time they like. There are no extra jobs with this application, just more misery and dangers to our health inflicted on the community; no gain all pain. I have had 'phone calls from members of the public and businesses as far away as Kilgetty, Saundersfoot, Tenby, Freshwater East and Penally, who are affected by the noise and vibration emanating from the range, all supporting the objections, and I hope that these people will also come to this meeting and voice their opinions and make a stand against the MOD. The MOD are trying to use emotional blackmail in saying we need to train troops; indeed we do. I am sure there is not one objector to this proposal, myself included, who would not insist that our troops are trained to the highest level.  However, the MOD are using this range not just for the training of British troops and pilots, but to train various other countries' troops and pilots, as well and additionally, as a sales centre for the weapons and defence mechanisms. So why should our community be subjected to the health threatening noise nuisance? The MOD do have an alternative site to train the troops, where there is no impact on a community, and objectors feel and insist that the alternative site is where the training, development, conditioning and selling of these weapons should take place. We must also not lose site of the decrease this will lead to in property prices, because you will have to declare this noise nuisance to prospective purchasers, and also the effect it may have on the tourism industry. I sincerely wish that the local community, whether for or against the application, which let us not forget will affect many generations to come, will attend and participate at this meeting, which begins at 7 pm, so the community council can make an informed decision to pass to the planning authority. Please come along and decide our community's future!

C. L.Cochrane, Manorbier