NEW environmental legislation affecting all commercial property owners comes into force next month with fines for those not adhering to these laws.

Environmental performance certificates need to be in place for all properties marketed for sale or rent and there are stiff penalties for those who don’t have them in force so get your skates on if you are one of those and get in touch.

One problem with having empty property , perhaps as a result of flat lining economy,  is the need to ensure that it is properly maintained.

And this doesn’t just mean keeping the building up to date in terms of repairs but equally important is ensuring that it is regularly, perhaps weekly, checked.

The situation was brought home quite recently when I called to carry out a weekly inspection check on a building on Newport's Charles Street.

I found the aforementioned  building  alive with people hell bent on scavenging and  stripping the property of all its metal. Luckily the long arm of the law was soon in attendance and some of those involved apprehended.

But the lesson this gives to those with empty property on their hands is one, make sure that it’s properly secured and, two, ensure that the property is regularly inspected by authorised agency. This serves a couple of purposes. It can help to spot potential problems with a leak or broken window and also ensures that insurance on the building remains valid.

You’d be surprised at the number of people who fail to read the details of their insurance policies one of which will most probably stipulate that the cover could lapse or become void  if regular checks by professionals is not carried out.

Newport, as anyone who happens to stroll thorough the city centre knows, has its fair share of empty shops at the moment. Probably the most vacant space the city has had in a generation perhaps more.

Now there are a number of well-known and oft quoted reasons for this. One of which is the state of the economy but there will be an upturn of that we can be confident and bearing that in mind it’s as well to have our stock looking as attractive as possible. To set out our stall as well and attractively as we can.

Because despite the current and persistent gloom commercial agents for and from major blue chip occupiers maintain their surveys of likely places to invest and occupy, come the upturn and you can bet your life that they are out and about in Newport.

Which makes it all the more galling for the city to recently gain all the wrong headlines when  named as having the dirtiest streets in Wales.

We may be down but we’re most certainly not out however litter strewn streets make it look as though we are on our uppers. We simply can’t allow this image of this proud and great city of ours to prevail at any time but most especially not in this the tenth year of Newport being named a city.

The city could very well soon be on everyone’s lips for the right reasons if Newport County can prevail in the two legger against the mighty Wealdstone in the FA Trophy and go on to bag an historic Wembley final place.

With a gold-plated opportunitys like this to promote our city and have the eyes of the rest of the UK, maybe even from around the globe, on us we need to be at our best and rubbish ravaged streets just don’t do us any justice at all.