SIR,
A full Monmouthshire County Council meeting recently ruled no organisation campaigning against County decisions or plans will henceforth be able to hire or use space on any Council administered land or buildings.
This decision came to light following KALM's booking of a stall in Abergavenny Butter Market for two days over the Christmas period.
This ruling has very wide implications in Monmouthshire, impinging upon citizens' democratic freedom to oppose anything which may affect County Council decision-making, either now or in the future.
Publicly owned spaces, however, are not private property as the Council seem to think. And the right to protest is sacrosanct to British democracy.
The KALM campaign was formed in order to establish the democratic view of the people of Abergavenny and has demonstrated massive support in favour of retaining the Cattle Market and resisting the land being sold into private (superstore) ownership.
Clearly the County Council do not like it and will use any dubious tactic in order to silence or suppress democratic expression, especially as they are now in the business of trying to close a sale deal with a superstore in January. Any wind of the extent of the local opposition could well make the bidders fidgety.
There are a great many groups and campaigns whose right to protest against local government policy will be affected by the Council's latest draconian ruling.
Ultimately, the damage done to the credibility of the County Council, already severely dented, will be far greater than any further damage it will cause the voice of legitimate democratic expression.
Nothing can be calculated to anger public opinion so much as the blatant curtailment of civic freedoms, especially when ability to question County Council decision-making at County Hall meetings has also been restricted by the stage-management of Council procedures.
Is it that our political representatives are afraid, and if so, of what? Or is it that protest groups in Monmouthshire like KALM are to be put into the same camp as groups such as fascists and terrorists?
Big Brother has come to Monmouthshire. What next?
Jenny Long
(for KALM)