Sir, I do not know the lady by the name of Bartlett who wrote to you concerning the proposed planning development in the old Kiln Field in Amroth, but she gives her address as Nyth y Frân, and I know little enough about the Language of Heaven, except that Welsh scholars tell me that the words mean crow's nest. It is appropriate, I suppose, for such a letter to be written from this particular little crow's nest on the bank by someone who does not live there, but is believed to make sporadic brief visits. Her reference to the 'open aspect on the river valley floor' is nonsense. The majority of people who visit the seafront at Amroth do so to look at the sea. From now on they will also have the additional delight and benefit of being able to gaze at the new much discussed so-called enhancement area. The main view inland, which will be obscured by the proposed development, will be the houses now known as Brookside Villas. These were council houses, built by Narberth RDC in the 1950s. Along with the support of my then fellow councillor and cousin, the late Ivor Howell, I was able at that time, after great opposition, to bring this about in the belief that they would be for the benefit of local people. At the same time we ensured that the space in front would become a free car park. Details available on request. We did not know then that Mrs. Thatcher, in addition to destroying the National Health Service, whatever good she may have done otherwise during her term of office, would also enact legislation which would mean that more than half of these houses are now either holiday homes, or inhabited by incomers, a trend which is destroying rural community life far more than the proposed development in Amroth, which would at least get rid of the existing eyesore known to the locals as 'Rex's Chalet'.
Roscoe Howells,
Glan-Y-Môr, Amroth.