NEWTOWN people love their town as much as anyone else loves their hometown. I count myself in that bracket.

Yet, I do feel we should not put the Newtown tinted glasses on and be totally blind to some of the older and more recent problems this town endures.

The town centre continues to die a slow death and it is indeed painful to walk the once vibrant streets which now resemble a ghost town.

There are a litany of reasons why Newtown has declined and certainly it did not happen overnight and the legacy belongs to many organisations which no longer exist to own up to their past shortcomings or do anything to rectify them.

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Indeed, you could even question the wisdom of Thomas Penson, the architect who designed Long Bridge which was deemed too narrow 200 years ago yet for some reason people take some pride in risking life and limb walking on a bridge wholly unsuitable for modern life.

Newtown’s road layout was changed in the 1960s of course.

I often wonder whether it was decided then whether motorists should indicate to turn right onto Back Lane from Long Bridge or indicate left to carry on onto Broad Street.

Then I realised it was far more likely given the fact that motorists play fast and loose with the rules on this particularly busy road that the distant Powys County Council planning and transport officials locked away in Llandrindod Wells had likely never even ventured to Newtown.

Newtown needs to be brought kicking and screaming into the 21st century.
Barbra Jones, Newtown