THE current business rate revaluation is a complete disaster for high streets with Monmouthshire being particularly badly hit.

In an age when so many transactions are carried out online with companies based in warehouses in remote areas and probably with offices offshore paying low taxes, it makes no sense to clobber our struggling high streets with a tax that is loosely based on a rateable value not on profits.

In Wales responsibility rests with the Assembly. They need to match England by removing all businesses with a rateable value of less than £12,000 from the system.

The English multiplier (the per cent charged on each pound of rates) is lower and all businesses will benefit from a transitional scheme. I would urge as many people as possible to call on Mark Drakeford AM to match or better the English schemes.

In the longer term though the time has surely come to move to a tax based on profit not on a bureaucrat's view of how much a property can be rented out for.

Croesyceiliog Sixth Form has always had a good reputation in and out of the classroom - I remember losing to them at rugby when I played for Bassaleg in the 1980s.

The news that the school is being rebuilt is welcome but why are the council hell-bent on scrapping the sixth form and moving everyone into a college? There should be choice in education and things that are working reasonably well do not need changing. Torfaen need to rethink their plans.

With local government elections taking place in May we will soon enter a period of purdah - the time shortly before an election when elected members are prevented from making big announcements which might help them to win.