By Ken Ellis, president of Newport Chamber of Trade, brings you his monthly column

With all the disruption in the city centre, I am at a loss as to why the local authority appears to be reluctant to introduce a proper Park and Ride scheme.

It has been talked about for the Ryder Cup with possible sites identified and it will certainly be required with the influx of visitors expected for this one-off event, important as it is. But I would suggest that the need is required now for a retail Park and Ride scheme and not just in two years time.

The imminent closure of two of the city centre car parks will add more frustration to those who use the city centre.

The new Kingsway car park will not be ready before Christmas, so therefore the introduction of a Park and Ride system needs to be implemented now to ensure that users are familiar with it before the peak December trading period.

There should have been at least two Park and Ride facilities at two of the five M4 junctions which serve Newport, when the controversial bus lanes were introduced. This would have freed up primary parking spaces encouraging office/shop workers to use this option and also have a positive platform to promote the city centre Cardiff and Swansea operate successful schemes which are advertised on the M4 and accessed from the outskirts of the cities.

The token Park and Ride we have in Newport - a journey of several hundred yards from the civic centre to the city centre - is farcical.

I don't understand why serious thought was not given to reducing the number of cars coming into the city centre at the start of the regeneration programme when it was known there would be major disruption to the road network and closure of existing car parks. The obvious conclusion would have been the introduction of a Park and Ride scheme at that time. The city has already made a significant investment in bus lanes, and this additional facility at key locations would add further value to our public transport strategy With the local elections due in May perhaps readers of this article might like to ask their prospective candidates for their views on whether they would support an effective Park and Ride system in Newport. I would be interested in their comments.

The life blood of any town and city is its variety of shops and businesses. We need the major high street stores but we also must have the independent businesses which give the city its individual character and diversity.

We cannot keep saying that everything will be fine when the regeneration is complete. We will have a modern city centre but while the city prepares itself for its multi-million pound investments, just a few hundred pounds per week can be the difference between survival or not for our struggling retailers. The last thing we need is to make parking harder and drive the trade to Cardiff and Bristol The Chamber of Trade will be pressing with the relevant officers and members of the authority for the introduction of an effective and efficient scheme for the benefit of everyone.

For more information or to join the Chamber of Trade, please contact Eve Williams on 01633 267306 or Ken Ellis on 07966 414716.