ALTHOUGH the headline might sound like an existential question from the mouth of someone who has overdosed on French cigarettes, Sartre and black-and-white films, its foundations are pretty concrete. In fact, they’re buried in the stuff.

Why are there so many empty shops, buildings and spaces in Abergavenny? We’ll leave out heads for now because that would be churlish.

Nevertheless, there’s a lot of emptiness in the town, and the holes don’t look like they'll be filled anytime soon.

Way back in June, Abergavenny Town Council, alongside MCC scooped a national excellence award for its “outstanding approach to the town centre.”

The press release stated, “The Royal Town Planning Institute Cymru’s (RTPI) Award for Excellence in Plan Making Practice celebrates exceptional plan making that delivers meaningful, measurable outcomes for communities, the environment and local economies.”

Sound like the town centre you know?

It gets better!

An MCC spokesperson announced, “The accolade acknowledges Monmouthshire’s innovative work to develop placemaking plans shaped and driven by local communities, placing local people at the heart of shaping the future of their towns.

“A strong partnership between the councils has ensured the plans reflect local priorities and ambitions, supporting the creation of vibrant, sustainable and inclusive places to live, work and visit.

“Through this work, Monmouthshire Council is supporting regeneration across its towns, attracting significant external investment while strengthening local economies and community wellbeing.”

“Vibrant!” “Sustainable!” “Regeneration!” It all sounds lovely until you take a casual stroll around Abergavenny and you see the empty space where Richards used to be.

It’s been nearly two years since we lost that lovely old building to the flames.

Where once there was a building of elegant architecture, there is now simply a grey wall that appears to be hiding not so much a work in progress but something shameful.

Walk a little further down Frogmore Street, and you’ll find the old Barclays Bank.

That fine slice of architecture was once a mansion that belonged to wealthy sporting attorney and Sheriff, Robert Morgan Kinsey.

It was later occupied by his brother, General William Kinsey, who was the grandfather of the surgeon Elmes Yelverton Steel.

Prior to Barclays taking over, the building was formerly the Bennington & District County Bank. Since the 1920s there has been a century of banking on the premises of 57 Frogmore Street until a few years back when it shut up shop and has yet to reopen as anything at all. Likewise the shop next door which once was Oxfam, until it too went the way of the dodo.

So much for Aber being a town of charity shops!

And then a little further in the other direction there’s the old Carnegie Library. It’s potential redevelopment as a mosque is a controversial one but the bottom line is, it is yet another empty building in a prime location that has stood empty for far too long.

Why?

And then there’s the Halifax, the Great George, the Plas Derwen, and the Farmers' Arms. The list goes on and on.

Take a gander up Cross Street from the bus station and count how many empty shops you'll pass on the left-hand side. Four? Five? Either way you slice and dice it, it's not pretty.

"Not the council’s responsibility!" You might say. Here’s the rub. If a private shop, pub, or restaurant stays vacant for more than 365 days within a 24-month period, the council can step in. It’s called the 365-day Trigger. But you’d be hard-pressed to find a council official at MCC willing to load the bullets and wield that particular gun.

To be fair to Abergavenny Town Council, they've got limited powers, and they're busy elsewhere at the moment trying to restore the town's clock so we can all hear it chime again.

Which admittedly won't fix the bigger problems in the town, but it's always nice to know what time it is and if you're running out of the stuff.