SIR,

Tourism is the life blood of Monmouth, which is universally known as the 'Gateway to Wales', with the 'Welcome to Wales' signs just up the road.

The Wye Valley was one of the first places tourist ever visited, to see the beautiful landscape, not forgetting the numerous historic castles and buildings in the area.

It's vitally important to remember that that we must keep the 'market town' character of the town.

Tourists need to be encouraged to enter the town centre as this will benefit businesses and tourist facilities. We should be looking at improving the road access and especially the car parks to Monmouth, rather than investing in an unwanted shopping outlet on the outskirts by Dixton roundabout.

It is important that we learn from the mistakes of other towns, so cast your minds back a few years and recall what has happened to the town centres of Newport, Hereford, Chepstow and even Ross-on-Wye. In each, 'out-of-town outlets' have been constructed with the result that the town centres are struggling, if not dying.

Gradually their town centres have lost much of their character, resulting in people not visiting them.

For instance just consider how many coaches and cars stop off at Labels on the outskirts of Ross-On-Wye, rather than visiting the town centre and remember: the same could happen to Monmouth.

Tourism is one of the most important industries we have left in Wales, and particularly in Monmouth, being a major part of our economy, so we therefore need to promote it at all levels by encouraging people to visit the town centre.

Chris Munslow

(Monmouth)