With reference to Jo Barnes’ article in the Business Update of the South Wales Argus on September 4 and headed by the comment of Scott Pearson (managing director of Newport Transport): “Newport should not try to compete with Cardiff, but look to complement it.”

Mr Pearson has lived in the Newport/Gwent area for all of two years. He makes a ridiculous comparison between Newport (population c. 150,000) and the recent capital city of Wales, Cardiff (population c. 350,000) with that of Greater Glasgow (population c. 1,750,000) and Edinburgh (population c.450,000). The facts are, Mr Pearson, Newport and Gwent (and most of Wales) have been decimated by Cardiff’s insatiable greed for funding for its prestigious developments over the last 40 years or so. Funding that was so desperately needed by extremely vulnerable communities across Wales. The usual response from Cardiff to their plight has been the duplicitous mantra ‘what’s good for Cardiff is good for Wales’.

Brian Hayes, Clearwell Court, Bassaleg