The second late-night shopping evening was cursed with bad weather and what has been described as the worst road chaos seen yet.

The Beacon visited two of the traders who braved the conditions to stay open late following the plan hatched by Wendy Watkins of Wye Weight in an attempt to help her weather the current drop in footfall following the Monnow Street roadworks.

We also spoke to Chris Ross and Sharon McCallum at A F Thomas Electricals who said this was their second late night and they are planning on doing two more

“We don’t do tremendously well ourselves but the more businesses that do it the better”, said sharon, who also works art the chemist in Church Street.

They have only been trading in Monmouth since October so it was difficult for them to compare to last year’s March trading figures.

“It’s just difficult for all the shops and the things you see on social media just put people off coming in,” she added..

Her boss, Chris  said at the moment they were trialling it for March. 

“It’s not really paying us to open, the traffic and the weather has put shoppers off this week and last week people didn’t really know about it” she said.

“The rain has been horrendous and the traffic diabolical.

I’ve worked in town for the last 15 years and footfall is way down all through the week.

“There has not been many people walking up the street tonight

Our main store has been in Newport since 1932 and Andrew has traded in Abergavenny for 32 years.

“After March we will see how it goes, there may be more people about later in the year but we have to see if it’s cost-effective for the business really.

She said that Sharon was not being paid, “but she won’t let me be in here on my own,” added Chris.

We then dropped in on the Boathouse Gallery in the Oldway Centre and spoke to trader Jenny Chuter who is also supporting the scheme for late night shopping.

“We were open last week but didn’t get a huge amount of people, but we had some sales.

“We’ve been here seven weeks since mid-January so can’t really compare footfall to last year.

“When we first opened there was a lot of interest, but it’s obvious that town is struggling,” she said.

“We have a little shop in Tintern at the Abbey Mill Centre and have been there for four years so instead of cramming everything into the little shop there, we thought we would expand into Monmouth, it’s been a really good move.

“In the summer evening it will be quite nice with people wandering around.

“Paws Pet shop across the alley has also opened so it doesn't make it look too dark and it’s been fantastic.

“We have guest artists for six weeks at a time and have quite a long waiting list now for about a year, so we are trying to get a little bit more space by opening up the upstairs.

It means we always have new work for our customers to look at and it gives local artists a place to sell their work.

We are planning to start workshops in the summer somewhere in town, maybe not in here as so many people want to come in here.”

Around 17 shops and 14 places to eat have so far signed up to the trail to give shoppers the chance to beeat the traffic blues and browse at a more leisurely pace.

Give them a boost and turn out on Thursday night.