AS widely expected, Wednesday night's meeting of Abergavenny Town Council rejected the £16million Morrisons' proposal for the Cattle Market site.

Councillors were considering the recommendation of their planning committee to Monmouthshire planning committee to turn down the scheme unless Morrisons adapt it to incorporate many aspects of the Urban Option - a scheme drawn up by Abergavenny Development Forum.

Councillors want the supermarket building to be adjacent to Lion Street and not Park Road as Morrisons' plan shows, so it becomes more integrated with the town and the street scene. They also want the design to be more sympathetic to adjacent buildings in Lion Street with pitched roofs and a varied roof line to accord with the town around it, as with Waitrose in Monmouth.

They also call for car park surfaces to be similar to Brewery Yard if the scheme is to truly integrate. In the Urban Option plan there is a public space designated alongside the store, which is shown adjacent to Lion Street, so the public space links in with Market Street opposite.

The Urban Option was drawn up after plans suggesting some possible enhancements to the Morrisons' plans was rejected completely by Morrisons in their planning brief. The drawing suggesting 10 points which should be considered by the supermarket company in making their planning application was collated following a public meeting called by the Bryn y Cwm Forum last September.

It took on board the concerns of the 60 people who attended, including a kinked carriageway to link the site with Market Street, retaining parts of the abattoir buildings, a direct link into town, a tree belt extension at the Fairfield car park and changing the roofline.

The Urban Option now has the backing of Abergavenny Chamber of Trade, the Abergavenny Civic Society and the Bryn y Cwm Forum, as well as the Development Forum. In their response to the Morrisons scheme ACT (Chamber of Trade) and ADF (Development Forum) say the company failed to acknowledge the constructive suggestions from Bryn y Cwm.

They say the design and access statement demonstrates a continued lack of understanding of Abergavenny's townscape, skyline, urban grain and character. David Haswell, who met MCC officers with Susi Cernoch, president of ACT, and James Joseph said: "Their suburban out-of-town layout for a sensitive edge-of-town centre site results in a poorly designed contemporary box, dominated by a large car park,

"These are the characteristics heavily criticised by CABE,the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, in its recent report of supermarket designs."

Colin Watson, whose office is in Lion Street, has used Morrisons graphics to suggest an alternative scheme with the store located adjacent to Lion Street, a scheme successfully carried out by Waitrose in Monmouth.

He said: "I have heard that the head of planning supports the current Morrisons layout despite the views of the Abergavenny Civic Society and Development Forum, and despite the layout reflecting an outdated out-of-town or suburban supermarket.

"It ignores MCC's own design brief for public space and the over-provision of car parking in accordance with the Design Commission for Wales, who say in-town developments do not need as many car parking spaces.

Mr Watson continued, "Will councillors explain why Abergavenny should be treated differently to Monmouth and why the views of Abergavenny are being ignored?"

Significantly his plan echoes the principles of the 2004 scheme for the redevelopment of the Cattle Market site drawn up by Monmouthshire County Council's consultants, approved by the full council and supported by all town groups.

His design is similar to the Urban Option with the exception of the abattoir buildings. The other plan approved by all the town groups suggests retaining the two older buildings which are architecturally superior and using them for ground floor car parking with offices on the first floor.

Abergavenny Chamber of Trade president Susi Cernoch is now balloting all members to gauge everyone's views after the Urban Option was warmly welcomed by almost 40 members at their recent meeting.

The Bryn y Cwm Forum are also carrying out a ballot of their members so all views can be made public.

Said David Haswell: "Seven years have gone by since plans were first drawn up for the Cattle Market and I reckon this can be put right within seven weeks. All the town groups are trying to do is provide a quality scheme for the town. We can afford to wait another seven weeks if we've endured seven years to get to this point."

•FOOTNOTE: Asda withdrew their scheme for the site in the summer of 2009 and Monmouthshire County Council issued an unfettered brief to the four leading supermarket chains - Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda and Morrisons and Morrisons came top of the scoring matrix drawn up by the council. It is believed that the council needed to attract bids of at least £12million to cover the cost of their replacement cattle market to be built on their land at Raglan and other costs associated with the new development, including the cost of the library and the Brewery Yard scheme which was intended to link the site with the town.