A TIME TO ASK?

The small towns of Monmouth constituency and elsewhere have suffered in the past from ill-thought out developments and questionable short term economic thinking; local small to medium retailers and businesses and local consumers have suffered accordingly and ultimately we the consumers have paid the price with a loss of local services and choice.

The continuing campaign to retain the livestock market in Abergavenny shows that many people have serious concerns about the economic future and the character of their communities. Now we have to ask ourselves and Monmouthshire County Council some serious questions about who these decisions in relation to redevelopment are being made for? And why? And who really benefits, locally or otherwise?

Over recent years in the small towns across Monmouthshire, the rich mix of local shops, small businesses and local suppliers have come under pressure as the usual suspects in the shape of “identikit” chain stores have aggressively replicated themselves across our nation's high streets. Anyone who walks around with their eyes open can see that the individual character of many of our towns are not so slowly evaporating as we watch.

Our high streets which were once filled with a rich mix of interdependent butchers, newsagents, tobacconists, pubs, bookshops, greengrocers and family owned general stores, who also traded with each other as well as with their customers, are now rapidly filling with supermarket stores, fast food chains, global fashion outlets and charity shops.

What can best be described as an abject failure or indifference of local and central government to develop realistic local economic plans and the failure to create a level playing field for local businesses and suppliers, when combined with some very questionable planning decisions over the last thirty years, has directly lead to many of our town centre's being "regenerated" to death.

The end result is that our small and larger towns have lost their character as the traditional look and feel has disappeared, as facades made with local building materials have been replaced by identical branded glass, steel and concrete storefronts.

There is a real danger that this loss of economic diversity with ultimately lead to a loss of any real choice for consumers as well as a loss of local character. The replacement of locally owned outlets by retail multiples further damages the local economy as profits drain out of the area to remote corporate headquarters and local employment opportunities are destroyed.

It is now recognised that ten pound spent in a local business circulates in the local economy three times longer than if it is spent in a non local business. The side effect of these developments is a loss of a sense of community, with this loss of local character as our high streets have lost their distinctive local shops which have been replaced by “micro-format” supermarket or chain store branches.