MADAM,

The meeting last Friday in Shire Hall, called by the county council to discuss the control of street furniture in Church Street, Monmouth, was an insight into the gulf between the County Hall view of the world and the view of tax-paying traders and public customers. Three examples came up.

MCC insisted that the only issue is the law for keeping the highway open. In the real world it is not. It is also an issue of the viability and vitality of the high street. Like many high streets Monmouth is losing trade and closing shops. We have to be a place to be, as well as a place to buy. A place to enjoy, for meeting, joining events, finding new ideas. MCC must join-up its departmental boxes and have a vision for the future of the town.

MCC insisted that it must charge traders for their efforts to keep Church Street viable and part of a vibrant high street. In the real world it should not. MCC is wilfully naïve to ignore the marginal financial circumstances of independent traders and to say that business rates are ‘nothing to do with us gov’. Adding any charge, however small, threatens viability. The proposed charges come nowhere near covering the costs of the time, reports and committees already wasted by MCC over the years. MCC must simply and quickly agree a layout for street furniture in each street and police it from time to time. End of.

MCC called the meeting to “discuss concerns” and promised to “collect questions and report back to the council”. In the real world this is not dialogue. MCC must come out of its County Hall bubble world and into the real world, not just when forced to and with policies that have already been made. The community can see solutions to things that MCC cannot. When MCC makes decisions on the projects that we all pay for, it must schedule inclusive, grown-up, community participation from the very start.

Then we might live in the same world.

David Farnsworth

(Trellech)