A new volunteer group in Abergavenny aims to drive prosperity and growth by working with businesses and local residents in the town writes Christopher Gage.

Team Abergavenny’s ten members are looking to build a network of business people and residents to pool ideas promoting business-friendly action.

At a ‘packed-out’ launch event in St Michael’s Centre on Monday the non-profit group held an opening session to around 90 people. Chairman Alan Michie opened the event with a speech followed by a presentation held by members David Straker and Gwyn Matthews.

Mr Straker, whose family owned the Chronicle until the 1960s, said raising prosperity was the key focus of the group.

“We set up an official company as a non-profit. Nobody makes any money out of it. I do it because I care a lot about the town. I grew up where the Tesco is now; running around the printing presses. We want Abergavenny to be prosperous.”

“Abergavenny has a lot of groups, political, social, environmental, and events groups, with each one focused on their own area. How we grew was by taking a whole-group approach.”

As a non-profit organisation, Team Abergavenny will be able to harness grants which are unavailable to councils to pour into worthwhile ventures.

Ideas mooted by the team include free town centre wi-fi, improvements to park facilities and a revamp to major town hall buildings. Plans to develop a research centre with Cardiff University were in ‘early days’.

Mr Straker said the group would focus on encouraging new business startups, supporting current Abergavenny businesses and attracting the business of those further afield.

He added the team would ask ‘How can we make a difference there?’ when drumming-up new ideas for the town.

“We want to attract people and make Abergavenny more of a destination. We have to look beyond just local people. It’s about planting acorns and watching them grow into oak trees,” he said.

The team also worked with Monmouthshire County Council on the £1m regeneration project of the High Street, Nevill Street and St John’s Square, due for completion this August.

The group plans to hold an open space event next month, where Mr Straker said he hoped locals would offer their own ideas and suggestions with like-minded people.