AN OPEN letter has been sent to the leader of Newport city council demanding that a public meeting be held in the aftermath of the Chartist mural demolition last Thursday.

The open letter, addressed to the leader of the council, Bob Bright, asks for a public meeting to be held within the next seven days. Signed off from ‘The people of Newport’,

The letter was sent yesterday by the Save our Mural campaign.

Peter Rawcliffe, of the Save our Mural campaign, said: “What we’re asking for now is a full open public meeting within seven days, of the entire council and chief executive, to answer all the questions we have put to the council.

“If in seven days they fail to provide a public meeting, we will lodge a formal code-of-conduct complaint with the Ombudsman and also with the Welsh Labour Party.

In addition, the campaigners are concerned for the whereabouts of the ruins.”

Mr Rawcliffe said: “We have been told the remains are safe, however, we want to be able to inspect them ourselves.”

On Saturday protesters left messages and flowers, and tied socks and placards to the railings around the mural site to form a memorial.

By 10.30am on Sunday almost all of it had been stripped away.

“That’s malicious,” Mr Rawcliffe said.

Save our Mural has since put in a lost property report to the council and the police, asking for whoever took the items to return them.

The campaign plans to hold a symbolic funeral to bury a small piece of the mural and will notify people when this is happening.