ABERGAVENNY needs all sections of the community to pull together to regenerate the town, a Civic Society meeting heard this week.

Local trader John Bannon told a gathering of 75 people at St Michael's Centre, "It's not all doom and gloom here in Abergavenny. However, we have a make do and mend attitude in Abergavenny. We need action to resolve this and that means proper regeneration.

"We need a lot of small things to happen and together these will make a difference and give the town a pleasurable outlook, ideal for making visitors want to come back in the future."

Fiona Beavan, chairman of the Abergavenny Business Club said that the town's chemistry and charm is based around the independent trader.

She added, "But what is at fault with the town is the landlords not having pride in the their buildings.

"We need to start the regeneration ball rolling by getting the town's landlords to improve the appearance of their buildings.

"We also have to analyse why people come to Abergavenny. We are a tourist town and people from all over the world visit our high profile events.

"But we need them to visit all year round. At the heart of this we need young entrepreneurial businesses to be part of this historical town."

Mrs Beavan criticised the piecemeal way in which the town is maintained and added, "Have you noticed that every ten paces in Abergavenny there are patches of black asphalt repairs when block paving gets damaged?

It's a cheap option to undertake repairs in this way.

"You wouldn't see a town in the Cotswolds patching up their pavements in this manner. So why should we?

"Business owners are passionate about being part of Abergavenny and the town being the Gateway to Wales. It's in all of our interests to increase the long-term viability of Abergavenny."

Dave Bevan, head of economy and enterprise for Monmouthshire County Council agreed that the viability of the high street was a national problem and that Abergavenny needs to find a different way to move forward.

He said, "The best way of doing this is by bringing together all the interest groups to form a town partnership and included in this scheme must be the buildings' landlords.

"Only then can we, as a cohesive group, devise a scheme that creates a vision of Abergavenny for the future. We need to capture and analyse as much feedback as possible.

"Monmouthshire does not receive any European funding to make improvements to the town, but the authority does help when it comes to staging large events.

"Abergavenny is a great place to live and work and the way forward is in partnership with others as part of the Whole Place Scheme that is now being launched."

Amanda Peters, owner of two businesses in Abergavenny, said that rates for her small businesses were manageable, but her overriding concern was the rent on the buildings in town.

"A lot of landlords are pretending that we still live in the affluent 1990s and are still charging high rents, but in return pay little respect for their premises.

"I applaud the idea of putting pressure on landlords to improve the appearance of their buildings," said Ms Peters.

Mr Bevan added, "As a community we need to come together. And at the heart of this is an action plan that is sustainable to drive forward the local economics of the area.

"We will shortly have Morrisons opening up in the centre of town and we've got to accept the arrival of this supermarket in Abergavenny.

"We can't fight this decision, so let's embrace it by making Abergavenny more attractive in a variety of ways so that shoppers will venture into town after they have been shopping in the supermarket.

"We need a wider range of traders. Who ventures into a town to visit a charity shop?"

Tony Konieczny pointed out: "We are in the process of losing many of the town's assets like The Hill educational college and Mulberry House and therefore we need to create others.

"Its no good moping about the decisions of the past, we need to use and revitalise what we have got and use it to its full capacity."

Chairman of the meeting Philip Bowyer said there was a lot of passion over this issue and added: "It's obvious people care a lot about Abergavenny and want the powers-that-be to take responsibility for their part in regenerating this town."

Monmouth AM Nick Ramsay, who is also chairman of Assembly's Enterprise and Business Committee, concluded: "The number of people at the meeting shows just what interest there is in improving our high streets.

"I was also pleased with the positive atmosphere at the meeting. It's clear that there is a real passion amongst the people of Abergavenny to make the most of the town.

"My committee concluded in our report that dealing with parking issues and business rates is vital if local independent shops are to thrive.

"I'm delighted that Abergavenny Civic Society is playing such an important role in this debate."