THE local authority is facing the possibility of a Judicial Review over their decision to grant planning permission for a supermarket on the site of Abergavenny cattle market.

Lawyers acting for the campaigning group Keep Abergavenny Livestock Market have initiated legal proceedings against Monmouthshire County Council in a bid to have the planning approval decision quashed.

Campaigner Jenny Long said: "It became clear to KALM early on that the council's decision making was sometimes opaque and left a number of unanswered questions. Some of the gaps in their evidence, and the inconsistencies of policy, have roots going back to 2004." 

Solicitors Richard Buxton specialists in environmental and public law have been appointed by the campaigners to uncover illegalities in the process used by Monmouthshire County Council.

KALM members believe that an overweening desire to maximise cash receipts has driven the sale of the cattle market site project which has resulted in short cuts being taken and a disregard for lawful process.

Mrs Long added: "Over the past three years members have collated a great deal of verifiable evidence which exposes the chasm between the local authority's claims to have consulted local people and the reality that they have done no such thing and furthermore have ignored KALM's evidence."

The solicitor's letter itemises four separate grounds in which they are pinning their challenge on. KALM believes that the authority failed to carry out the environmental impact assessment screening exercise as required by law; That the council failed to carry out the legal requirements connected with the regulations governing the conservation of habitats and species; That the authority failed to take account of heritage issues which impinge on the social and economic character of Abergavenny and failed to give reasons for granting planning permission, which ignored Monmouthshire's previous design and framework policies along with the reasoning of why the Henry Boot/Asda scheme was refused in 2006."

The 16 page solicitor's letter to Monmouthshire County Council contains closely argued facts. The letter suggests that the authority failed to grapple the socio-economic effects associated with the overall sale of the cattle market site, including relocation of the livestock market to Raglan it that it involves the repeal of the Abergavenny Acts. KALM believes that the acts were originally established to support the socio-economic needs of the town and that the repeal and closure of the market would be a significant effect for the purposes of environmental impact assessment screening.

KALM also believe that the screening opinion also failed to consider wider issues associated with relocation of the market to Raglan. Solicitor Richard Buxton said: "In essence the complaint is that Monmouthshire County Council is seeking to 'slice up' the project into a series of discrete schemes with the net effect of avoiding the application of the environmental impact assessment directive. This amounts to project-splitting under the directive and is unlawful."

KALM told the Chronicle that it was their wish to halt the present project and the repeal of the Abergavenny Acts and, in the spirit of those Acts, to work with the various existing groups and organisations in the town and surrounding area, together with MCC. The aim is to bring about the improvement of Abergavenny to fulfil 21st Century needs by drawing on modern ideals of sustainability and localism. 

KALM member Barry Greenwood added: "Monmouthshire's plans are relying on a discredited twentieth century model of corporate retailing when all the evidence is that it doesn't work. 

"The recently issued Portas Review about the future of High Streets by Mary Portas is yet another blow for those who still cling to this outmoded idea."

Jenny Long concluded: "The future of Abergavenny is far too important to allow the town to fall for the sake of a short-sighted supermarket deal which, we believe, will be revealed to have been unlawfully and undemocratically struck in our name."

The relocating of the Abergavenny's cattle market to Bryngwyn is also coming under pressure from an alternative planning application at the neighbouring authority in Torfaen at Mamhilad.

Jack Hanbury-Tenison from Pontypool Estates has lodged the application for a similar sized livestock market to that at Bryngwyn on land just off the A4042 trunk road near Little Mill.

Abergavenny Development Forum's David Haswell added: "I can see that these proposals are likely to be favoured over Monmouthshire's unsupported, high risk centre at Bryngwyn.

"However in removing a key asset to the town, both proposals will do nothing for Abergavenny.

"The forum has always argued that the cattle market should be allowed 'to find its own future' and we believe insufficient thought has been given to the existing site and local attractions."