Sir, May I have the opportunity through your columns to correct some of the errors and omissions contained in Clr. Calver's letter concerning the night firing planning application in last week's Observer? He says that he was asked by the PCNPA for his comments on the application. One wonders how many members of the community he was elected to serve were consulted before he made his comments? The Community Council organised a public meeting to hear the Army's case for the application and to gauge the feelings of the community. From this meeting, it became clear that there was a substantial majority opposed to night firing. He states that 'eight out of the nine councillors eligible to vote indicated that they were opposed to the application'. Not so! I, among several councillors, stated that I was not personally opposed to the application, but felt that as members of the Community Council it was our duty to reflect the majority views of the community and not make decisions based on our personal feelings or interests. This is surely what democracy means. A request for a site visit is not at all unusual in planning applications and is a way of gathering more information and making the views of the community known to the planning authority. His assertion that 'councillors have now made a judgement on the application' is not true, as the vote in council has been deferred until after the site visit, so no 'judgement' has yet been made. Clr. Calver's point about the need for our Armed Forces to have adequate training is valid as far as it goes. As a former member of the Armed Forces who has personally served in difficult and dangerous situations, I completely agree with the need for such training and I am sure that if there were no alternative location for this training, then there would be very little opposition in our community to the application. There is, however, an alternative suitable site in the Outer Hebrides, but the MOD have ruled this out on the grounds of cost. An argument which is hard to take from an arm of government which sees nothing wrong in spending many millions of pounds of tax-payers' money on the DARA fast jet servicing facility at RAF St. Athan and then moves the business back to England. A final point on the theme of money - the planning application mentions 'overseas customers' and as anyone who has watched the low flying exercises at Manorbier will be aware, a large proportion of the aircraft using the range are foreign aircraft. Since there are no reciprocal training agreements in place with any of these foreign governments, one assumes that the MOD is selling the facilities at Manorbier and deriving an income from these sales. This poses the question, how long before foreign forces will be involved in night firing at Manorbier?

Brian Coleman, Manorbier