SIR,

 I understand that in the past week, Coffee No 1 and other traders have been forced to reduce their pavement furniture and displays of goods to no more than one metre from their shopfronts.

Does this mean that a wheelchair user enjoying coffee with two friends will be forced to move on as they are causing an obstruction?

 The pavement outside Coffee No 1 is the widest in Monmouth and surely more of a hazard at that point are the sloping pavements with drainage gulleys down the middle? 

I know quite a few visually impaired people and they are either confident enough to go out on their own and negotiate hazards using a white stick, or they are accompanied by a guide dog or companion.   I thought that this Government wanted to encourage a Cafe Culture. What is happening in Monmouth at present will do exactly the opposite.

Instead of the petty beaurocrat enforcing this rule under police protection and being paid with my (taxpayer) money, surely we would be better off by pedestrianising Monnow Street from the bus station up to Agincourt Square, thereby creating the true cafe culture environment, attracting many more visitors and shoppers.

It would also become a superb location for the regular markets and the Farmer's Market. Could this not happen on a Friday and Saturday anyway, as happens in other market towns?

 If this one metre rule is to be extended throughout Monmouth, then the stone pillars outside the library should be demolished as they must constitute a hazard!

Deborah Devauden

(Kingcoed)