NEXT Tuesday Newport councillors will make one of the biggest decisions in the city's history.

At a special meeting of the full council, they will vote on a cabinet recommendation to borrow up to £90 million and then loan it to developers Queensberry Real Estate to ensure the Friars Walk shopping and leisure centre is open by Christmas 2015.

There has been much reaction to the proposal since it was revealed by this newspaper earlier this week. More than 100 comments have been left on our website reports.

As we have said before, there is risk attached to this proposal and it would be ridiculous to pretend there is not.

The council's leadership was apparently unhappy that we explained to our readers on Thursday what a worst-case scenario would cost the city . Tough.

We have a duty to tell Newport's residents what could happen if everything goes belly-up - even if it is the least likely scenario.

We remain supportive of the loan plan and we would urge councillors to vote in favour on Tuesday.

The meeting will also discuss the council's handling of the demolition of the Chartist mural in John Frost Square.

We hope council leader Bob Bright will take the opportunity to talk in public about the reasons for the demolition (with which we agreed), but to apologise in public for the disastrous way in which the council went about the job.