WELSH Assembly minister Carl Sargeant has agreed to the repeal of the controversial Abergavenny Improvement Acts - seen by many as the last obstacle on the road to the closure of the town's livestock market.

In a written statement Mr Sargeant said that faith in the acts to prevent the closure of the market and the development of the site was, although 'strongly and sincerely held', misplaced.

Mr Sargeant added that during the course of the consultation, which closed at the end of November, he had heard representations from farmers and farming unions across south-east Wales the borders many of whom expressed concern at the potential loss of the market but were happy to support the repeal if there ' was no gap between the Abergavenny market closing and the new one opening'

"Some of them would actively welcome the replacement of the Abergavenny market with a more modern and accessible facility, said Mr Sargeant.

"These are again matters for the council, and the leader has already given a firm public commitment to farmers that the market in Abergavenny will not close until the new market near Raglan opens. I understand that the council hopes to conclude a clear memorandum of understanding with the farming unions which will further underline this commitment. I trust that the council will deliver on these very clear commitments it has made to farmers, and that those will be sufficient to address farmers' concerns," said Mr Sargeant.

In his lengthy statement Mr Sargeant admitted that interpreting the 150 year old Improvement Acts was 'far from straightforward' but said that he had power in the Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 to repeal Acts which appeared to him to be 'spent, obsolete or unnecessary'. "

He said that during the consultation period he had heard representations from a number of people who opposed repeal of the Acts on the grounds that they did not believe the current market should close, or did not want the proposed development of the site to proceed and saw retaining the Acts as a means of preventing those things from happening.

"I have no doubt at all that these views are strongly and sincerely held. I would like to thank the many people involved for taking the time to contact me and my officials. But as I said in October, such faith in the Acts is misplaced. They do not require the market to exist on its current site, nor do they prohibit development of that site. Equally, if I were to repeal the Acts the market would not have to close. Furthermore, and as I also said in October, I cannot appear to endorse or overturn a decision which was properly made by the council's planning committee – however strongly others support or disagree with it," he said.

Mr Sargeant added that he could hold not other view on the wider development of the town or the siting of any replacement livestock market as they were 'local issues'

"They are certainly important and complex, but they should be decided by the council in the normal course of business, as they are everywhere else in Wales and beyond.

"Those who oppose such plans should likewise seek to influence the council. And it must be for the council to justify the decisions that it makes, on this issue or any other. It should not be able to hide behind mid-Victorian statute or my role in possibly repealing it, and to its credit it has not sought to do so.

"That is why I believe that the relevant provisions of the Abergavenny Improvement Acts should be repealed, and that Monmouthshire County Council should be fully and properly accountable for local development matters.

"I repeat that this is not about what happens to the market. It is a question of how decisions about the market and the town are made.

"I cannot see any good reason why Monmouthshire County Council should be treated any differently from other local authorities in this regard.

"They should be able to take local decisions about livestock markets or anything else, and should be held accountable for them. The Acts prevent this. They are an unjustifiable constraint on local democracy.

"In particular, I believe the provisions dealing with livestock markets are unnecessary, because there are other more modern powers available to all local authorities governing livestock markets. They are also obsolete, because they impede the Council's accountability and decision-making ability. I heard nothing from our consultation which would lead me to an alternative view.

I will therefore make an order repealing the Acts shortly; and that order will come into force one month after it is made. The enabling powers in the Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 provide that this order will be subject to the negative procedure in the Assembly.

The news has come as a blow to Keep Abergavenny Livestock Market campaigners who say they are now in discussions with their legal advisors.

KALM member Barry Greenwood said, "Carl Sargeant has ruled that the clause places restraint on local democracy for the County Council. We would argue that this opinion remains untested.

"Monmouthshire County Council has yet to produce evidence to show the livestock market site is 'spent, obsolete and unnecessary.' In spite of the dilapidation and poor traffic management of the current site the livestock market has been shown to be busier than ever," said Mr Greenwood.

The livestock market is believed by a great many people to be vital to the economy and distinctive character of Abergavenny. Under these circumstances MCC have shown no evidence to support their belief that a supermarket and car park on this site will better this and regenerate the town by attracting a greater footfall. Their assertion that this is so has never been backed by evidence or with comparative studies with similar edge-of-town-centre developments such (for example) as Brynmawr, Pontypool, Brecon and Newport. It could be argued by implication that local authorities no longer value the role of town centres in economic and social life given the weight they give to oppositional points of view.

"KALM has produced a great deal of in-town research and surveys which show that neither livestock market users nor the shopping public and town centre retailers believe the loss of the in-town cattle market will have anything but a degenerative effect. MCC have failed both to address these surveys or to conduct any of their own. Instead they have made their case fit narrow, legal requirements without reference to local opinion or need.

"Under these circumstances we believe the removal of Clause 28 of the Acts has been used by MCC in order to by-pass local democracy and have given them undue, unaccountable power without the need to justify their case.

"The recent Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) Inquiry revealed a great deal of evidence to show MCC have only one outcome in mind, whether or not the new Bryngwyn livestock market is a practical and sound economic alternative to Abergavenny. Neither was MCC interested in addressing whether or not the sale of the Abergavenny site to a supermarket represents good value for Abergavenny. No such economic evaluation has been conducted.

"We do know, because we are told, Bryngwyn Livestock market will run at a loss. We know also that a contract with the Farmer Unions has been signed in which MCC, in return for NFU and FUW withdrawal of objections to the sale of the present site, has guaranteed the provision of a livestock market in Monmouthshire for the next 50 years, whether or not it runs at a loss.

"We also know the people of Raglan and Bryngwyn are strongly opposed to a livestock market in their agricultural environment. All this on the basis of the sale of a publicly owned market site in town and an unknown, unquantified case for value for money or social benefit to the town and public," said Mr Greenwood.

"There is a weight of documented evidence which suggests that selling the livestock yard may not be the best option, contrasting with the absence of any investigation by MCC into alternative regeneration ideas for Abergavenny.

"KALM believes it to be legally, socially, economically and morally irresponsible for the plans to go ahead. Carl Sargeant has given his verdict on the Abergavenny Acts based upon his belief that it will not affect whether or not a livestock market exists in Abergavenny.

" However, in doing so he has given MCC exactly what they think they need in order to remove the decision from further democratic scrutiny and move straight to redevelopment,"?he said.

Despite last week's announcement it will still take some time to repeal of the two Acts as Assembly Members have a period in which they can ask for a Senedd debate and vote.

Even if the repeal goes through unchalleged it will still be some time before the market can close as the Monmouthshire authority still has to await the outcome of the public inquiry into the compulsory purchase order for shooting right at Bryngwyn and approve a landscaping 'timetable' before development of the replacement cattle market site at Bryngwyn.

Once the new site is under construction, and a completion date identified, it should then be possible to timetable the Morrisons scheme, subject to attempts by KALM to call a judicial review into the Morrisons scheme.