HOW can Cllr Townsend justify Newport City Council contributing £250,000 to revamp the market?

We as residents of Newport are already facing an increase in council tax, when government initiatives were for councils not to increase it, given the austere times in which we are living. Newport is one of the few councils to increase it. Now we know why: to help fund the facelift.

Market traders are struggling to stay in the market; will they be footing the bill in some way, ie further increases of rates?

As for the two-hour free parking that has unbelievably come about after a load of shops have shut down! Didn’t Newport also have an extremely poor score for cleanliness recently? The town is full of litter and rubbish. Also, how do you explain a Grade II listed building being fitted with uPVC plastic doors front and back which are not in keeping with the rest of the building?

Councillors need to get in the market and speak to the people who are struggling – the stallholders.

Newport is full of pubs, cheap shops and charity shops. I don’t have a problem with them, except there is nothing much else in Newport.

How councillors justify their positions is beyond me, especially when you email the likes of Cllr Townsend and never even get the courtesy of a reply.

A Haywood, Newport