Inside ‘perfect storm’ that’s ruined ‘brilliant’ British town | UK | News

Those keen on some distinctive window shopping would struggle to discover a superior location than Church Street at the summit of Monmouth’s charming town centre.

The winding passageway epitomises quintessential market town atmosphere and features the town’s sole florist, a gothic gift shop and the oldest known theatre site in Wales.

Visitors could dedicate an entire day here and still not exhaust its offerings – that’s assuming they can locate it.

It’s concealed down a corner of the town shrouded by scaffolding whilst a blocked walkway to the primary car park at Glendower Street means customers are now channelled away from the historic retail district towards Monmouth’s main high street at the heart of the town.

Business owners claim life is nearly equally challenging throughout the town following “no end of issues”, reports Wales Online.

They maintain life in the town is now becoming extremely tough and they’re not referring to global cost pressures.

President of the town’s chamber of commerce Sherren McCabe-Finlayson has chosen to voice her concerns.

She’s departing the position she’s occupied for six years shortly and says she must exit whilst championing traders who feel abandoned.

Sherren states traders in Monmouth are struggling desperately but those in the Church Street vicinity are now especially suffering in what ought to be amongst the county’s finest shopping destinations. She holds the council responsible for ongoing roadworks and construction projects, as well as the expansion of walkways throughout the town, which she claims stops customers from parking and has severely impacted visitor numbers.

Monmouth previously prided itself on having virtually no vacant premises, yet now numerous shops stand empty whilst neighbouring Abergavenny continues to flourish.

“It all started in 2020. Monmouth was completely different before Covid,” Sherren explains. “The council then widened the pavements for social distancing and said it would only be temporary. And yet years later we’re stuck with these huge pavements because the council now doesn’t have the money to dig them up.”

Under its fresh placemaking strategy for Monnow Street, the council has sought public opinion on introducing rain gardens along Monmouth’s primary route to provide additional outdoor dining areas, though numerous business owners argue this wouldn’t suit Monmouth.

“It hasn’t worked so far,” Sherren says. “The plan for rain gardens isn’t popular. The extended pavements immediately reduced parking – leading to the town losing at least 20 parking spaces. Something which was always one of Monmouth’s USPs was that shoppers were able to pull up for half an hour and do a quick bit of shopping. There remains that need but it isn’t possible in the town now. Shoppers often don’t want to pay for an hour or two hours – they’ll just go elsewhere if they have to do that.

“We’ve lost at least 20 rotating parking spaces from that and the pavements have been filled with planters so it sort of defeats the purpose anyway as not that many people can sit out there. The businesses aren’t asking for a lot. They’re asking for the scaffolding to come down, and an end to the constant roadworks and for their parking back.”

Sherren laments that since Covid, “it’s been one problem after another” for the town she adores. “Following the installation of the pavements we had Welsh Water here doing work for a year which meant the town was gridlocked and people avoided the town altogether. Many of those shoppers are still yet to come back and those who have come back have seen continued scaffolding and roadworks in the town.”

The most impacted by the latest works are those at Agincourt Street and Church Street, which could be the town’s main attraction but where traders say they’ve been disregarded. Sherren elaborates: “For the last 16 weeks there has been scaffolding along Agincourt Street for work at the Shire Hall which has blocked off traders on the street from customers for that time. Customers couldn’t see the frontages of the traders and those traders badly suffered, as did surrounding properties. So much so that one elsewhere in the town has now decided they have no choice but to permanently close. It has been the final catalyst for me to say: ‘Enough is enough.'”.

“Added to that is the continued issues for traders in Church Street which began three years ago following the unexpected closure of the Barton alleyway which is the main link from the town’s main car park and the shops.”

The Barton has remained shut for years owing to a wall deemed structurally dangerous.

Business owners claim they’ve been given no updates regarding when repairs will be finished whilst its closure keeps harming commerce.

“It means shoppers don’t walk into the town via Church Street anymore so in many cases they don’t even know there are lovely independent stores at the historic top end of town,” Sherren explains.

“The people of Church Street feel forgotten.

“Added to that is the scaffolding which covers so much of Church Street. The council have now provided a banner which at least informs shoppers that there are traders up there, but it’s been devastating.

“The scaffolding has been up on and off for about two and a half years and is invasive and ugly. Why hasn’t that work been completed for the sake of traders?”

The council has put forward proposals to improve the vicinity with a unified signage scheme to boost visibility from Monnow Street directing customers towards Church Street and the White Swan Court.

For Agincourt Square there are plans to create a regular market and install street furniture, however business owners say the town remains stuck in limbo with minimal progress being made. “The chamber is the only body which is actively promoting Monmouth,” Sherren said.

“If we hadn’t managed as a chamber to get funding for some marketing there’d be nothing at all. When you see the amount of disruption Monmouth has been subjected too over the past few years we do feel like the poor relation here.”

But, I would like to stress that Monmouth is a lovely town with some fantastic niche independent stores and makes a very pleasant day out. “During one morning this week at her Blessed Be Emporium on Church Street, Eirwen Rogers welcomed just one customer – a regular patron who visits monthly for his incense.The only other visitor wasn’t interested in purchasing anything but simply wanted her to display a flyer in her window.”

I have just expanded downstairs because retail isn’t cutting it,” she says. “I’ve taken over the downstairs of the building and I’m currently turning it into a fantasy gaming thing and a workshop space.”

That isn’t due to growth of my business but sheer desperation to survive. “I have no opening hours at all now,” she says.

“I post them on Facebook every morning, because there are so few people in this part of town that sometimes it’s not worth coming in. I am desperate for a massive reduction in my business rates.

“I’m paying more than £700 a month business rates alone and they don’t even empty my bins. It’s impossible.”

She launched her enterprise in 2021 and arrived here in October 2023. Since then, she says, it’s been “chaos”In one morning this week at her Blessed Be Emporium at Church Street Eirwen Rogers has seen one customer – a regular who comes in once a month for his incense. The other person who came wasn’t interested in buying anything but wanted her to get a flyer in her window.”

The constant non-stop work on the road or the buildings and the constant traffic and lack of parking has had a devastating impact on the town,” she explains.”

Last year when Welsh Water was here people posted on social media saying: ‘Stay away from Monmouth. ‘ That’s what people were saying.

Just awful. And the town hasn’t recovered.

“The silence is deafening. If it wasn’t for Sherren we wouldn’t have a clue what was going on.

“I feel like I’ve been abandoned. This part of town is historic and offers so much and yet no-one comes here.

“There has been word of blackening our windows every day to show how we feel. Like a sort of protest.

Florist Lottie Dixon of the Bloom Room tells a similar story. It’s a bit quiet isn’t it?

“It’s not brilliant,” she says. The last few years have been disruption after disruption.

“The problem was with all the works last year people just avoided the town and at the same time we’ve had all this active travel stuff with the widening of the pavements and it’s caused traffic jams and a lack of parking.

“It’s been a series of unfortunate events which shoppers have just had enough of.

“If it’s hard to navigate the town and hard to park people will go elsewhere, and that’s what has happened.

“Once a shopper has gone to a different town and found a new favourite coffee shop or found a place you can buy nice bread and it’s easy because you can park there then their habits change and it’s so hard to get them to come back.

“Monmouth is a beautiful town but it needs more love. It wouldn’t take a lot.

“It needs fewer disruptions and better signage and for traders who are here every day to be listened to.

“It would be amazing if the high street was put back to how it was pre-Covid to give us a chance.”

The regular scaffolding needs to end, and businesses need to have clarity on what Monmouth’s future looks like.

“It’d give us a bit of hope.

“There have been and currently are still various plans for Monmouth town but I think we’re in danger of losing what Monmouth has been really good at. We can’t afford to lose the heart and the history of how the town is.

“I think the money could be better spent supporting us in a different way. What about a sign on the dual carriageway encouraging people into the town rather than the current situation?”

Dr Nicola Bradbear of the Bee Shop at Agincourt Street says the only sign on the carriageway at the moment is a sign saying: “Delays until winter 2026.”

“Just devastating,” she says. “We’ve just had scaffolding up here for 16 weeks and that came after the road was shut for works. It’s just been rubbish.

“There is a severe lack of footfall now in Monmouth. Life here was viable up to Covid and then we had to start shutting and then Monmouth went bonkers with roadworks.”

When we speak to her, her welcoming shop is empty. “Hardly anyone comes in. It’s always like this,” she laments. “We’ve tried opening on Sundays.

“We’ve tried everything.

“Monmouth needs funding to encourage footfall and tourism.

“It used to be brilliant. We’d be really busy during weekends.

“But it hasn’t been like that for years. It’s been a very unlucky town because none of these things are related and yet they’ve all occurred over the space of a few years.

“If you come on a Saturday you’ll see people not stopping because they can’t park. Monmouth has one street and people get stuck and there isn’t much parking and they go on elsewhere to shop.

“It’s sad to say because if they did manage to stop they’d see Monmouth does have a lot to offer.

“The number of empty shops is a shame and it’ll decline rapidly if something isn’t done because once a town loses its best independents people really will give up on the place.”

Her colleague Donna Regan adds: “It’s getting people to come down this street and come to Monmouth at the moment. People don’t come because they don’t want to sit in a queue waiting to come in.

“It’s such a shame because you go to the effort of filling a shop with lovely items and then no-one comes in.”

The Savoy Theatre site has been situated on Church Street since the 19th century and has attracted millions of visitors to the town, but director Chris Ryde says he also believes circumstances have become increasingly challenging.

“The chamber’s initiative to get this part of town reprofiled if you like has been helpful,” he says.

“It’s baffling what has occurred here.

“The whole of the street looks closed currently which is obviously a deterrent. There’s nothing at the bottom of town to tell you there’s such a historic theatre of such importance up here.

“We all know the common problems businesses are facing across the country, but I feel almost as though there’s someone out there trying to make this more difficult than it needs to be.”

A spokesperson for Monmouthshire council said: “The council acknowledges that essential works to provide critical infrastructure for Monmouth have had an impact on residents and businesses.

“The scaffolding on the property on Church Street is required to ensure the structural stability of this listed building for safety purposes.

“We are working with the owner of the property to minimise the impact that this has on the area.

“We will continue to engage with both residents and business owners to ensure that Monmouth is recognised as a fantastic location to visit.

“We will listen and engage with the residents and local businesses on any future proposals in Monmouth that aim to enhance the area.”