MADAM,

St John Street residents have recently been notified by a Yorkshire firm that they intend closing the street to traffic. This, they say, will occur between 5th October to 14th October - so less than one week’s notice.

We have not been notified officially by Monmouthshire County Council (MCC) Highways Department of any scheduled road closure. I wonder if Highways have followed MCC protocol in this case or have they waived it for a firm from England on this occasion? 

Highways MCC protocol is for them to require eight weeks from receipt of a road closure application from any ’body’.

Highways stuck rigidly to their rules when a water leak sprang up in the same street less than three months ago. We were told that it was ’protocol’. The leak would have to run for eight weeks as this was Highways MCC procedure.

It doesn’t take much imagination to see how, on certain occasions, the protocol can be waived! The residents have not been notified, officially, by Highways of this imminent road closure.

No doubt we will be told this was an ’emergency’ unlike the water leak that was  undermining the foundations of residents’ grade II listed homes. 

Name and address supplied

The roadworks in St John’s Street are featured on the first page of the highways report and were also the subject of a notice in last week’s Beacon (page 34).

The road will be closed because roof work and other associated repairs to Timpsons require scaffolding and the road is not wide enough to accommodate traffic.

Monmouthshire County Council