Newport not a suburb of Cardiff (From South Wales Argus)

Newport not a suburb of Cardiff

11:27am Friday 20th July 2012 in Letters

I AM concerned at the suggestion of a recent Welsh government report that Newport should be included in the Cardiff city region for the purposes of attracting industry and commerce to South Wales.

I would hope that Newport council approaches this proposal with caution. Newport is a city with history and heritage.

I am afraid that if it is subsumed into some amorphous municipal mass, inevitably Cardiff dominated, it will lose its identity and also lose forever any chance of regaining its former glory.

There are already signs of recovery.

As part of ‘Greater Cardiff’, why would there be any further encouragement for the development of Newport city centre?

Why bother to encourage businesses to occupy the empty shops? Cardiff has them already and duplication surely makes no economic sense? I do not wish to see this great city being treated as a suburb of the mighty Cardiff.

I am all for co-operation between councils and Chambers of Commerce for the mutual benefit of all, but only provided that Newport gets its fair share of the cake.

S Davis, Alway, Newport