City in need of bold action (From South Wales Argus)

City in need of bold action

3:35pm Tuesday 12th March 2013 in Letters

THE authority is doing everything in its power to improve Newport city centre which simply appears not to be good enough, as made out in the SWA on Monday.

Perhaps Newport needs to bring in a big hitter to regenerate its centre, someone with vast experience and who knows what they are doing. Talking with the Welsh Government is not going to produce anything for Newport: we need action from Cardiff Bay to get things moving. Decreasing business rates to a very favourable level to encourage inner city businesses, providing grants for inner city housing and opening up the High Street to traffic with street parking, as it once was, would be a good start. The Admiral Insurance development is good news but there will be a sparse selection of shops for its workers to use. The John Frost Square development is also good news, but 2015 is maybe too late as people are, and will be, shopping elsewhere by then.

Richard Lockett Claremont Newport