CITY CENTRE RETAIL SCHEME COULD BE BACK ON THIS SUMMER

The leader of Newport Council says a new developer to replace the ill-fated ‘friar’s walk’ in the city centre could be appointed this summer.

Speaking at the launch of the Newport 2010 festival, Councillor Evans explained that the compulsory purchase of property and land in John Frost Square should be completed by the end of march, paving the way to appoint a new retail developed a few months later.

“March will be the milestone for the compulsorypurchase” said the council leader.
“There is a lot of developer interest already and they’re looking at plans. We’re looking at hopefully getting a developer in towards the end of the summer”.

When questioned whether any new plans would be of a smaller scale, Mr Evans was in no doubt.

“It will be the same scale of development. People deserve to have something of that size. Newport needs a big centre, it’s no good having a tiny little development down there. We’ve got the area, we've got the population, we’ve got the infrastructure and we’ve got the car parks all ready to go.”

On a day that seen a big push to promote Newport’s features, assets and potential, the council clearly see no reason to dwell on the ‘Centre for Cities’ think tank report published earlier this week that see the outlook as ‘tough’ for this year’s Ryder Cup City.