The hugely controversial street furniture policy that had fallen at more fences than a Grand National entry is finally set to become a reality.

The embarrassing *-turn made by the county council on A-board and street furniture charges began with a proposal going back to 2014 and meant that businesses with A-boards would have to pay a one off licence fee of £50, while those with larger displays such as tables and chairs would have to pay a one-off licence fee and an annual fee ranging from £120 to £360.At the time MCC Highway Operations Manager Steve Lane recognised that A-boards and street furniture gave colour and vibrancy to the street scene but highlighted the county council’s responsibility to ensure highways are "maintained for the unhindered passage of pedestrians."Charges for A-boards were introduced in 2016, but were suspended in 2017 after a backlash from traders who were facing massive increases in their business rates. Extra payments to advertise and promote their businesses were not welcome news and petitions and protests and sit-ins gave every indication that this was not a popular proposal.Whilst county councillors decided in January 2018 to scrap A-board charges, they voted to keep the street furniture charges but cut fees in half, declaring that the charges were not a profit-making exercise as Councillor Bob Greenland said at the time: “We were simply seeking to reimburse the council with those costs.”Then in July 2018, in yet another embarrassing climb-down, the controversial charges for street furniture were dropped after a statement from Cabinet described them as the “straw that broke the camel’s back”.So here we are, 2019, with ‘guidance’ on A-board and commercial activity coming into force on the streets of Monmouthshire this autumn. A licence - with no fee to pay - will have to be applied for so the council can make sure the street furniture is of a quality and appropriate to the area and gives them the power to have the offending furniture removed.A boards must not encroach onto the pavement more than one metre from their shopfront and not be over a certain size. Traders will have to display their licence and have to provide evidence of public liability if asked to do so. It’s the same policy that the council has been trying to enforce for five years, but without the permit cost.The White Swan Tea Room’s Mary Mahabir said that without the A-board she only gets 20 per cent of her business. “We really do need it,” she said. “It will regulate those traders who are being silly with the A-Boards and people who don’t have safety catches on their boards.“Good on the council for seeing sense and dropping the fee, the proposed charge was money on top of everything else.”Church Street trader Phil Munday said that the guidance was quite reasonable: “We’ll cope, we’ll adapt,” he said.