SIR,

Now that the dust has died down on the subject of A Boards and outside displays may I through your columns state the following facts.

The Highways Act of 1980 clearly states that the Highways Authority A K A as Monmouth shire County Council has a clear duty to provide an unobstructed flow of all traffic through the area it controls , therefore in April 2001 a Bye Law was passed to bring this into effect .

This bye law states basically that there must be a pedestrian pathway of 1.5 meters through Monnow Street, Agincourt Square, Priory Street ,and Church Street, where the existing pathways allow this.

Premises which have more than the said 1.5 meters of pathway outside may have an outside display or place an A Board up to a depth of 1.0 meter from the shop front still leaving the said 1.5 meters for pedestrian pathway.

Here I have to digress a little,since 2001 the number of premises that have changed ownership is quite considerable. Therefore should not these more recent traders be talking to their legal,estate management company's who leased or sold them these premises why they were not told about these restrictions which were in force rather than berate the Local Authorities .

Returning to the main points, traders who have these outside displays etc which are kept within the parameters of the bye law gain valuable display space at no further Council business charges to them, so are not traders who exceed these parameters taking money from the public purse.

Every business that admits the public to their premises has to have by law Public Liability Insurance, this is arranged between the policy holder and the insurance company.

So where does this cover stop at the front door or does it also cover outside displays and A Boards. The County Council insist on a £5m to indemnify them against accident by these traders policies .

Of course I am unable to tell how the Council monitor this. Perhaps if the Council had enforced this bye law in 2001 when there were not so many prospective offenders the recent furore may never have been .

However I can positively state that since 2001 the traders over the years have had at least six copies of this bye law distributed to them, so has it just been a question of Bin It.

Bert Goodwin