A HIGH Court judge has rejected a bid by a local pressure group to prevent the closure of Abergavenny's livestock market.

The market has been protected by the Abergavenny Improvement Acts since 1854, but plans to replace it with a supermarket and a library have met with strong local opposition from the Keep Abergavenny Livestock Market campaigners.

The protesters launched a legal challenge against the Welsh Assembly Government's decision to repeal part of the Abergavenny Improvement Acts, and Monmouthshire County Council's decision to grant planning permission to an outside developer.

Both Judicial review challenges were heard in early October at Cardiff High Court.

Last Thursday judge Mrs Justice Nicola Davies said at the High Court in London that MCC had taken into consideration all the issues surrounding conservation, environmental and socio-economic issues when the authority granted planning permission.

However the pressure group claimed that the decision was made contrary to sections of the Town and Country Planning Regulations, the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations, the Unitary Development Plan and statutory obligations, which bind the council.

Mrs Justice Nicola Davies said that KALM's challenge was a 'thinly disguised attack upon the granting of planning permission' and that specific grounds of challenge now relied upon by the pressure group had not been raised in earlier objections.

One of KALM's arguments was that the demolition of the site would have a serious impact on the local economy and threaten contamination of the River Usk.

However, the judge rejected these arguments as the authority had been obliged to carry out a full environment assessment before granting consent.

In rejecting KALM's case, the judge added: "Misplaced forensic criticism has been levelled at decisions made when no issue was taken at the time objections were made.

"There are no grounds upon which the court could find that the decision of Monmouthshire County Council granting planning permission to Optimisation Developments Ltd was unlawful."

In respect of KALM's challenge against the Welsh Government to repeal the town's improvement Acts she said that Abergavenny had 'not stood still since the 19th Century'.

She added: "The decision to repeal the 1854 Abergavenny Improvement Acts was taken by Welsh ministers, who were well aware of the consequences of the repeal and took them into account. The legal consequence of the repeal is that the council is freed from its obligation to hold a market at a specific location.

"The decision-making process was not irrational, no mistakes of law were made and there was no failure to have regard to considerations which as a matter of law have taken into account of a subsequent act.

"The 1854 Act requires the livestock market to be held in the boundaries of 19th century Abergavenny. A decision made in the 19th century has demonstrably become obsolete.

"A decision made in the 21st century which suggests that there is a more appropriate place for the market clearly renders out of date the earlier requirement for a particular location.

"The Welsh ministers are entitled to take the view that it is unnecessary to have prescriptive control of the livestock market in Abergavenny when the remainder of Wales can survive without this restriction.

"The provision of the act was enacted nearly 160 years ago. Abergavenny has not stood still since the 19th century."

Mrs Justice Davies added that the decision made by the Welsh Ministers that part of the Act was 'obsolete' was neither irrational or unreasonable.

She added: "It properly reflects the fact that, with the passage of time, the needs of individuals, organisations and communities have changed. "Abergavenny is the only place in Wales where such a prescriptive regime exists. It is a regime that clearly restricts the local authority in the making of wider planning and development decisions.

"Welsh Ministers concluded that a provision which restricts one local authority in Wales is no longer necessary.

"A local authority ought to be able to determine where and when a market should be held within its area rather than being forced to hold it at a particular location on particular days."