APPALLING. At no one’s command a bulldozer trundles across John Frost Square and randomly batters through the Chartist mural. Conveniently two days before a planned demonstration.

Not us claims Newport Council, blame the ‘last lot’ ‘The ‘last lot’ approved the yearly subsidy towards the Gwent Music education programme, immediately overturned by ‘this lot’ so obviously the destruction of the mural could have been overturned also.

Argus photos indicate the mural was not built directly onto the ‘dangerous’ wall but a separate structure attached by building ties questioning the £600,000 removal and preserving cost.

Recent published figures show the Riverfront Theatre, will cost ratepayers over £1.25 million pounds over three years, in subsidies. (2012/3 cost approx. £389.000) This could be seen as an ill afforded luxury when other educational venues such as the central library and museum are facing removal to another cramped venue.

The £1.25 million could have been saved by offering the Riverfront on lease to the University for extra accommodation. The popular sell out Christmas pantomime could still continue, at the 500-seater Dolman Theatre on the opposite side of the road.

The £1.25 million would not only have funded the removal and preservation of the mural but three years of subsidy for the Gwent Music programme, which is still funded by Torfaen and Monmouth councils. In quality it is believed to be second only to Edinburgh in the whole of the UK.

Newport’s musical and industrial heritage is being swept away as fast as an ebb tide on the Usk. Unlike the river the Chartist mural can’t be swept back on the next tide. Newport RIP.

Joan Briggs Ambryn Road Pontypool