SIR,
I was fairly interested, and quite alarmed, to read in
the letters column of last weeks Beacon that a meeting
was to be held (on Monday 2nd August) at The Riverside
Hotel to discuss the moving of the festival to Monmouth
Showground.
Unfortunately, I should have taken more notice of
the name of the author of this letter and the mention of
the Welsh Electors Community Group and the UK
Independence Party.
My wife and I, plus about 20 other concerned
Monmothians, rather stupidly as it turned out, attended a
bizarre meeting which was called by, chaired by and solely
addressed by Mr Gary Witcombe.
Fortunately, also attending in the audience was the
chair of Monmouth Festival, as curious as the rest of us as
to the origin of the statement, and who immediately
assured us that Monmouth Festival, Monmouth Town
Council and Monmouthshire County Council are all
perfectly happy with the present location of the festival,
now and for the future, and were as bemused as the rest
of us.
After an interesting monologue on the dereliction of
duty and total disregard of the Royal Charter of Henry IV
(or was it Henry III?) by both elected councils, Mr
Witcombe then offered to write to both councils and
yourself to ascertain the origin of the proposed move on
our behalf and to express our concerns about the same.
Needless to say it has now become apparent that this
was a total misinterpretation by Mr Witcombe of one line
of text in your paper of the 14th July, which stated (to the
effect) that the Monmouth Festival of Light would be held
at the end of the festival on Sunday 1st August at
Monmouth Showground.
Obviously Mr Witcombe reads everything from the
Beacon to Mediaeval Royal Charters, but does he interpret
them correctly?
Has he heard, I wonder, that they are thinking of re-
opening the Trellech Treacle Mines (ibid Annals of The
Green Dragon, 19th March 2005) and the impact that will
have on the environment and the citizens of Trellech?
The job opportunities thereby created would,
however, offset the loss of jobs when our benighted
councils close the boat trips to The Round House (for
safety reasons, Clarke et al, Robin Hood, 4th August 2002)
during the summer months so perhaps we should not
complain.
However, another public meeting will no doubt have
to be called. This time I shall not attend.
Geoff Webb
(Monmouth)
The Beacon understands the offending line of text in the
issue of 14th July was in a story under the headline
Monmouth Festival set for another successful year and
read as follows: The Monmouth Festival of Air will take
place on the final day (Sunday 1st August) as the festival
relocates to Monmouth Showground.
This referred to the kite festival and balloon glow, which
took place after the final night of the festival at Blestium
Street car park.
The Beacon has heard no reports from event organisers,
councillors, or anyone else referring to a relocation of the
festival itself.