2:48pm Friday 25th May 2012
THE demise of the Kings Hotel, like the Westgate Hotel, must be laid firmly at the door of Newport council for its bad planning, lack of foresight, plus total lack of common sense.
All of which have seen the city centre slowly die more and more for decades.
Once again, we have seen a well-known building that was part of Newport’s character and heritage die. It’s questionable if the Kings Hotel is worth £500,000 let alone the outrageous price of £1.5 million put on it.
As for perhaps turning into flats and restaurant, and so on, I would have thought Newport has more than enough of both. What Newport needs is to put the life and character back into its centre – not the same old thing over and over – so people will want to visit and shop in Newport.
I would have thought Newport council would have had enough experience to fall back on with the fiascos of the Westgate, Newport art college and Old Rising Sun to name a few.
Of course another idea would be, The Kings Hotel is bought by one of the big supermarkets so they can put the death nail into Newport city centre once and for all.
Ray Clayton, Monnow Way, Bettws, Newport
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