FROM today, Newport rises.

The future has arrived. It may have taken decades. There may have been many false dawns, broken promises and dashed hopes. But it is here.

At 10am today the Friars Walk retail and leisure development opens its doors for the first time and Newport city centre finally has a shopping complex of which it can be proud.

Queensberry Real Estate has delivered an outstanding development, just as it has done previously in Bath and Belfast. It has opened on time, ensuring the likes of Debenhams benefit from the Christmas shopping period.

Queensberry’s chief executive Paul Sargent and his team are to be congratulated.

Regular readers of this column will know that Councillor Bob Bright, leader of Newport City Council, is not my biggest fan. The feeling is mutual.

However, Councillor Bright deserves the thanks of the city for the role he has played in ensuring Friars Walk became a reality.

He took a politically courageous decision to borrow £90 million of public money to provide the finance for the development when private investors were not forthcoming.

Some might say it is not brave to gamble with other people’s money, and they have a point. But if Friars Walk had not happened, if another financial collapse had scuppered it, the council taxpayers of Newport would have been left with the bill and Councillor Bright’s political career would have been in tatters.

As it is, his legacy to Newport opens today.

He and his Cabinet and senior officers have done Newport proud with this development.

The previous administration also deserves praise for appointing Queensberry in the first place.

With Queensberry already fielding enquiries for the sale of Friars Walk, the likelihood is the city will have its investment returned with interest sooner rather than later.

Not every unit in Friars Walk is let yet – but lettings for 80 per cent of the site is better than most new developments of this kind achieve.

Not every store and restaurant opens today, but this phased series of openings was always planned and depended largely on when individual chains signed up to the scheme.

But the key players – Debenhams, Next, Cineworld, Nando’s and many others – also open their doors today.

The opening of Debenhams, in particular, ends a saga that goes back well into the last century.

As far back as 1988, this newspaper was running stories about the department store’s imminent arrival.

Today it is here. The arrival of Debenhams and so many other big names is a huge vote of confidence in Newport’s future.

There is now so much development taking place in the city centre that it is sometimes difficult to keep up.

But the investment that has and is taking place proves a point I have been making for years – Friars Walk is a catalyst for the regeneration of Newport.

It is the beginning of Newport’s reinvention as a 21st century city rather than the end point.

The final phase of riverfront housing development across the water from Friars Walk is now under way. The conversion of the former King’s Hotel into city centre apartments is close to completion.

Plans for the Station Quarter are well under way. Admiral is already here.

There is a vibrancy and excitement about the city centre that has been lacking for many, many years.

Those who wish to be cynical and negative about Newport will no doubt continue to find cause for complaint.

But, by and large, they have been proved wrong in recent years.

They said Debenhams would never come to Newport. They were wrong.

They said Friars Walk would never open. They were wrong.

They said the shopping centre wold be empty of stores and become a white elephant. They were wrong.

The latest from the cynics is that people in Newport cannot afford to shop and eat in Friars Walk. They’ll be wrong about that too.

There is nothing wrong with being positive and there is more reason than ever before to be positive about Newport’s future.

It’s time for the people of the city to be confident and proud.

From today, Newport rises.