WELL, the designers, planners and councillors of Newport, have managed to do it yet again, botched up what should have been a saving grace for the future of Newport. I refer of course to the new Friars Walk. 
I have to assume none of them have been to Cardiff, or many other new “shopping precincts”. 
Have they not realised, that the best ones are totally undercover and have good quality clean flooring. What do we end up with, a half-uncovered area, with paving slab flooring, which is already stained and grubby in parts, and we all know, it is only a matter of time before we see the usual chewing gum mess.
Having been fortunate to visit shopping centres in different parts of the world, including Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, New Zealand and many European centres, it is quite clear that yet again Newport have served up second best for its residents, who definitely deserve better. 
To compound matters further we have a car park, which has its entrance and exit onto a main traffic thoroughfare dual carriageway. It beggars belief that anybody was allowed to design such a stupid and very dangerous set up, with a serious accident just waiting to happen.

D J Pritchard
Rowan Way
Newport