THE PICTURE in Friday’s Argus of the mayor and his retinue opening the supposedly renovated Newport market was, to say the least, worrying. It was clearly taken so far away that the line-up resembles a still from the film, The Usual Suspects. Was this deliberate? It is certainly and entirely appropriate.

Quote the mayor: “This opening is a great start to Christmas in our city.” The only trouble is that this is a Christmas too far and there have been too many false starts already. The beleaguered traders of our historic market have been kept waiting and, due to a lack of customers in lack of customers for so long that it has become a place of empty stalls and broken promises.

It is perhaps a blessing that the photograph is so indistinct that one cannot see the smug and self-congratulatory expressions on the faces of those so responsible for the decline of the market and indeed of shopping in Newport as a whole. Shame upon them.

Julian R Powell Larch Grove Newport