NEWPORT'S CHARTIST MURAL DESTROYED!

And end to childhood memories in Newport

The destruction of the popular Chartist mural, just off John Frost Square (in Newport) today has robbed many Newport residents of part of their personal and cultural history. I have fond memories of walking past the mural as child with my grandmother and being fascinated by it. Now its gone, reduced to rubble on the (relative) quiet by a by the Labour Party in Newport, which was anxious to avoid embarrassing scenes at a demo planned for the weekend.

The pathetic excuses made by Labour in Newport and their refusal to engage and find a way to save the mural just about sums up the way the town of Newport has been treated over the years. Few people are against development or redevelopment but it needs to be sustainable and sympathetic to the needs of the town. The failure to work with local indigenous small businesses in and around Newport is a reality that has done great economic damage to the local economy and has weakened our economy.

We have to do something different, yet another shopping centre, which promises much but may well deliver little of lasting benefit, exactly as did the Kingsway Shopping Centre (in the 1970's).  Any shopping development should contain retail opportunities for small local businesses as money spent in local businesses circulates three times as long as money spent in 'UK national chains. Simply filling the development with chains means that what local money is spent will get hoovered up and vanished out of town as rapidly as possible. Various attempts to develop or redevelop Newport over the years, largely via the questionable vehicle of Newport Unlimited (more like 'Newport limited') have failed to deliver lasting economic growth. Planned local council cuts of some £34 million pounds won't help, but, neither will a complete lack of vision and the contempt which has been demonstrated for the towns inhabitants today.