ARTISTS and young people could brighten up Abergavenny's future.

Plans to paint the biggest mural in the world on the streets of the market town are being discussed by members of the Chamber of Trade in hope of regenerating the town.

President Susi Cernoch told the Abergavenny Chronicle that the 'Painted Town' project was not only about art but also all about regeneration.

She said the main aim of the project is to breathe new life into the town by making it very bright and colourful.

"This can be achieved by having murals painted on as many walls as possible throughout the town. It will give Abergavenny the unique selling point of being 'The Painted Town,'" she said.

The Chamber of Trade hope the five year plan project for reinvigorating the economy of Abergavenny will increase the footfall in the town.

"This project, if followed through to completion, will have s profoundly beneficial impact on the town's economy. In fact we should be able to convince any large corporate organisation in the area that it should be a leading participant in its own best interest.

"Once the project gets going new businesses will want to be represented in the town and it may be a good plan to try to get as many galleries as possible to locate in Abergavenny to further advance the idea of the painted town.

"Murals will being colour and a vibrant feeling to the town and will certainly be an attraction but only if there are enough of them to make an impression. The problem with other instances of murals in towns is that they stop short of being really impressive on both individual scale and the number of images. They are interesting to anyone who happens to be there anyway but are not impressive enough to stand in their own right as tourist attractions."

Artist Ron Swanwick believes that Abergavenny could follow the steps of a small community on Vancouver Island in Canada that has attracted more than 350,000 tourists a year.

Chemaninus has a population of 3,500 which in the words of their own slogan became the 'little town that did. The town's economy was based on timber extraction and it was falling.

The idea was born of painting several murals to attract some tourism and cheer the area up. Since then it has been a major success with millions of people visiting the town over the past 20 years.

Cruise liners now dock there and the town now has more than 35 very large paintings around the town - and there is no intention of stopping.

Chemanius has almost exclusively depicted its social history which has worked well for them.

Mr Swanwick suggested the murals for Abergavenny should be a mix of historical, amusing and contemporary images to appeal to all ages and many interests.

The aim is to do the first work large enough to get recognised by the Guiness Book of Records as the biggest mural in the world.

Mr Swanwick has painted murals for three decades, he told members of the Chamber of Trade that the murals could be historical, contemporary, amusing, thought provoking and illusory. He said they can being light and colour to the dingiest space and add character to a clean but otherwise bland facade.

He said, "The reaction to them by the general public is almost universal approval."

Some of the proposed sites in Abergavenny include Tiverton car park, Market Street, Lion Street, Cibi Walk and a graffiti wall for youngsters in the alley to 7 Corners.