TO QUOTE Councillor Bob Poole in Friday’s article on shopping centre redevelopment: “We have been in this position two or three times before.” Well, I am agreeably surprised. I had thought it was more often than that. Cambrian Centre, Friars Walk, etc – all suggest that it is only a short step from wannabe to might have been. We have indeed been led down this road before, often by the nose, and perhaps this is one of the many reasons I have been known to wax cynical on this page.

I am unimpressed by the council spokesman’s bleating that it can’t be their fault that so many town centre businesses are upping sticks and hitting the trail to Spytty or oblivion as they don’t fix the extortionate rates imposed on them. Maybe not, but it is hardly sufficient merely to shrug their shoulders and do nothing. I am sure this will not cut the mustard with Morris Cowan, the latest of Newport’s evacuees, nor indeed the long, unhappy line of their predecessors. It seems that empty promises lead to nothing but empty shops in our fair town (sorry, city – still can’t get used to that)

Julian Powell, Larch Grove, Newport