Conservative dominated Monmouthshire County Council (MCC) desire to dispose of the cattle market site (and the Cattle Market) in Abergavenny to temporarily boost the local authorities coffers is well known and well documented. Now MCC to fulfil it's development plans has to persuade the National Assembly to repeal the original parliamentary legislation (dating for the 19th century) which gives Abergavenny the legal right to hold a market within the town - as part of one of three Abergavenny Improvement Acts.
MCC has long struggled to balance the books for many years, suffering from a poor financial settlement, which has driven the Authority to dispose of its assets for relative short term financial gain. The harsh reality is that MCC, along with many local authorities across Wales, is far too small to be viable in terms of finances, delivery of services and economies of scale. What has effectively happened is that local residents in Monmouthshire (and elsewhere) have ended up paying the price for the demise of Gwent.
Most people can see, with the exception of MCC and its planners; that the public, given a choice, are more than happy to buy local produce and to support local retailers. Most people don't want to see a local high street entirely dominated by national chains. A successful dynamic and diverse local economy has a place for the larger retailer and the supermarket chain, but, not at the expense of everything else and particularly when it will lead to the destruction of our small town high streets.
Over a number of years there have been various ongoing campaigns to retain the livestock market (n Abergavenny and to preserve the unique character of Abergavenny as a traditional market town shows. There have been detailed surveys (of residents, visitors and local small farmers have been undertaken), petitions raised and research commissioned and conducted over the years - all showing that both local residents, visitors and many local farmers wish to retain an active Cattle Market in Abergavenny.
Now MCC should have made the most of these real opportunities to get things right when it came to planning the long term economic future of Abergavenny - they did not. They repeatedly failed to grasp opportunities to begin the whole sorry process afresh, working hand in hand with concerned local residents, farmers and small businesses to ensure that Abergavenny retains its Cattle Market and it's fundamentally unique character as a market town - yet for reasons of short term financial gain they chose not too.
Across Monmouthshire (and elsewhere in England and Wales) we have to often in the past seen ill-thought out unsympathetic redevelopments that have had a detrimental effect on the local economies in both Chepstow and Monmouth and elsewhere. The retention of the cattle market in Abergavenny presents a real opportunity to do something fundamentally different, something that should be able to address both environmental and economic concerns and contribute to the retention of the unique character of the market town that is Abergavenny.
Oddly enough the National Assembly Ministers has to repeal the nineteenth century Abergavenny Improvement Acts before any development of the cattle market site can actually take place. Additionally under Section 77 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 the National Assembly has the power to call in any applications for planning permission for their own determination, something that clearly should have been done in this specific case - so far they have chosen not to do this.
While there is often a tendency to consider that development proposals are best dealt with by planning authorities that know their area, its needs and sensitivities, it is pretty obvious that with regard to MCC, and the redevelopment of Abergavenny and its cattle market this is clearly not the case, hence a real a pressing need to call in this proposed development. Even when MCC changed the composition of the Planning Committee because it returned the wrong verdict (against rather than in favour of the development), there was barely a peep from the National Assembly.
Even at the eleventh hour, planning applications can be called in when they raise issues of more than local importance, issues which are in conflict with national planning policies; could have wide effects beyond their immediate locality; may give rise to substantial controversy beyond the immediate locality and are likely significantly to affect sites of scientific, nature conservation or historic interest or areas of landscape importance which covers almost every single aspect of MCC's proposed redevelopment of Abergavenny cattle market.
Most people can see that Abergavenny needs to retain its unique, attractive features and not join the sterile trend towards large retail and supermarket-dominated clone town centre deserts – save for MCC and the National Assembly that is. In the not so recent past a whole range of suppliers, traders and small businesses who sell to consumers and too each other have along with whole communities suffered from this increasingly well recognised but misguided model of retailing and economic development. Elsewhere in Monmouthshire, the damage done to Monmouth and Chepstow by ill-thought out retail chain dominated economic redevelopment - no one in their right mind would want to damage Abergavenny's economy and unique character as a market town - save for MCC that is.
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