THE WELSH Government has said that it is 'minded in principle' to repeal the relevant provisions of the Abergavenny Improvement Act - one of the last hurdles in the proposal to redevelop the site of the town's livestock market.

In a letter to Abergavenny Town Council due to be discussed last night (Wednesday), Sian Jones, of the Welsh Government's local authority improvement branch said that Monmouthshire County Council had first approached the Welsh Assembly in 2005 asking for sections of the Act to be repealed.

"While we agree in principal that there is a case for doing so, our position has always been that we would only consider repeal if and when MCC?granted planning permission for the redevelopment of the current market site.

"Several failed applications for planning permission since then have meant that it is only now that we are able actively to address this issue."

The letter goes on to explain that the Minister - Carl Sargeant - is inclined to repeal the relevant sections of the Act as they 'impose a highly unusual restriction on Monmouthshire County Council' which unlike any other local authority is prevented from implementing 'reasonable decisions' about the redevelopment of Abergavenny.

"All other local authorities including MCC have other permissive powers in the Food Act of 1984, governing livestock markets and there is no need for provisions in the Improvement Act relating specifically to Abergavenny.

"Accordingly we consider in principle that the provision concerning the holding of a livestock market in Abergavenny town centre is obsolete, unnecessary and substantially superseded."

The letter also explained the controversial decision highlighted in last week's Chronicle, not to open the issue to public consultation and restrict any consultation only to users of the market, saying that the Welsh Government felt that MCC's own planning process had offered 'ample opportunity for interested parties to comment on the detailed proposals for the current market site and that the decision made following this process should not be implemented'.

Town councillors were also told that the Welsh Government has no view on the proposals for the development of the site or the proposed construction of a new market at Raglan as these were matters for Monmouthshire County Council alone which could not be taken into account when taking a decision on the repeal of part of the Improvement Act.

Similar letters have also been sent to the Farmers' Union of Wales and Abergavenny Market Auctioneers Ltd.

Councillors were asked to submit their views by November 12.

With controversy still raging over the redevelopment of the livestock market site work has this week started to assess the current state of the buildings which make up part of the site.

A spokesman for Monmouthshire County Council said, "Plans for a new library and supermarket in Abergavenny have taken a step forward with the start of exploratory work around the existing Cattle Market site.

"The work, which will take around two weeks and has required scaffolding to be put up, is to examine the current state of the buildings.

Deb Hill-Howells, Monmouthshire County Council's Head of Asset Management, said:

"Although the Welsh Government are still consulting on the repeal of the Abergavenny Acts, we need to continue with preparations should the application for repeal be successful.

"The Council remains committed to continuing the existing market until an alternative site is available."