Morrisons’ revised design and layout plans for a new supermarket on Abergavenny’s old cattle market site have been given the go ahead.

The application was approved by ten votes to one at Monmouthshire County Council’s planning committee on Tuesday.

Committee chair County Councillor Ruth Edwards said many people would see the decision as ‘an early Christmas present’ for the town.

The committee heard strong arguments for and against what was described by MCC’s planning officer as ‘an unashamedly modern design’ which was ‘a significant improvement on the original’.

In contrast, Mr Patrick Hannay, representing local organisations opposed to the revised application, saw the new version of the development as ‘an out of town tin shed in a car park’.

The committee was told that the new store would create 187 jobs, including part-time roles, and provide 233 parking spaces..

County councillor John Prosser, who represents Priory Ward, said that in his mini-surveys to gauge public opinion, the most frequently asked question was ‘When are we going to get the Morrisons scheme?’.

It was fortunate ‘in these austere times’ that someone wanted to build on the vacant town centre site, he said, and overall he supported the ‘long-awaited’ scheme because it would increase footfall to Abergavenny and create jobs.

But he understood the views of groups such as Abergavenny Transition Town and felt it was important for Morrisons to engage with local organisations to address their concerns.

He felt the company, for example, should be encouraged to use local suppliers wherever possible.

Mayor of Abergavenny Chris Woodhouse, representing the town council, said it had been 12 years since tenders were opened for the market site.

In each of those years the town had lost an estimated £20m to people shopping out of town in places like Cwmbran, Hereford and Tredegar.

At a recent town council meeting there had been nine votes in favour and one abstention.

He suggested that Morrisons might consider using the blank walls of the new store for murals of the town’s cycling achievements, internationally-renowned food festival, steam rally and the like to create a personal link to Abergavenny.

And he hinted it might be possible to find joint funding for such a project.

Morrisons’ agent said the company wanted to be part of the wider town centre and could strengthen Abergavenny’s economy by introducing new customers.

The proposal was for a ‘clean, crisp contemporary building‘ with more glazing than the previous application, where people looking out of the windows would see the town hall and hills beyond.

It hadn’t been possible for Morrisons to accommodate all the suggestions put forward but it was a deliverable scheme that would provide an attractive food store.

County Councillor Doug Edwards argued that many people in Abergavenny were not happy with the scheme, given there were already three supermarkets in the town.

He said he couldn’t support plans for a café on the site given there were already seven eating establishments within 50 to 100 yards.

And he felt the percentage of non-food items sold in the store should be looked at, although MCC’s planning officer argued it was not appropriate to impose such restrictions on a town centre store.

County Councillor Maureen Powell felt Morrisons would be a great asset to the town and County Councillor David Dovey said it was a decision of major importance from the retailer given it was the only UK investment of its kind this year.

The design was ‘an exercise in reality’ – the best Morrisons could do for the money available.

The new store, he said, would mean local people wouldn’t have to go anywhere else to get ‘the best deal’ while Abergavenny would become a popular choice with shoppers from the valley towns.

Mr Patrick Hannay, editor of Touchstone, the magazine for architecture in Wales, raised a number of points on behalf of 250 members of Abergavenny and District Civic Society, AbergavennyTransition Town, Abergavenny Cycling Group and Abergavenny Development Forum, all of which had made written submissions.

He said there should be a cast-iron condition that the scheme would be made to comply with the best practice of the Active Travel Act 2013.

Abergavenny Cycle Group and Sustrans had recommended improvements to routes across the site and the new A40 road junction, he said.

He argued that the hard surfacing of the whole site was ‘confused and contradictory’. The strategy should take its cue from the high quality design investment of ‘Brewery Yard’ opposite the site and be executed the length of Lion Street as well.

MCC should demand the re-instatement of the 20% non-food retail limit which had ‘shockingly been swept away in the Evaluation report’, he said.

Although the planning officer claimed there was no evidence that the town centre was vulnerable there had been no updated retail impact report – and not a thought had been given to the impact on food traders in the Market Hall.

The form and material of the buildings also required a rethink. The ‘very poor’ energy performance of the buildings materials and the lack of renewable energy components should be replaced by a timber-framed and timber-clad, pitched roof, urban ‘market hall’ – using the market town of Brecon as a benchmark.

He described it as a ‘once in a lifetime opportunity to make the largest new building in Abergavenny, probably for a century, live up to the majesty of the Market Hall and Town Hall, the Chapel in Market Street and the finely composed domestic and working buildings of Market, Lion and Monk Street that surround the site’.

Instead the version offered was ‘an out-of-town tin shed in a car park, as at Cwmbran New Town but trying to hide its meanness and lack of genuine sustainability credentials with ‘cor ten’ metal trees and mural panels’.