MORE than 150 years of history will come to an end early next month when the final sale will be held at Abergavenny's livestock market.

The final sale will take place on Wednesday, December 11 - just two weeks after the new Monmouthshire Livestock Centre officially opens in Bryngwyn, near Raglan.

The closure of the market will herald the start of supermarket giant Morrison's scheme to create a store in the town centre.

The controversial scheme to replace cattle markets in Monmouth and Abergavenny was first mooted in July 2000 in a joint bid to provide a new facility for the farming community and accommodate for town centre growth.

The cattle market in Monmouth was formally closed in 2003, but it was the Abergavenny site that led to the wave of controversy and court battles as pressure groups fought to preserve the town's market heritage.

The site in Abergavenny was chosen for the placement of a new supermarket, with the initial bid to build on the site coming from developer Henry Boot which aimed to open an Asda superstore.

After several years of debate, discussion and negotiation the Henry Boot plan was rejected by Monmouthshire planners in January 2007.

After a number of unsuccessful appeals Henry Boot was finally kicked into touch by MCC in the summer of 2009 and new bids from other stores invited.

This move came against a backdrop of growing unease in the town, with the protest group Keep Abergavenny Livestock Market (KALM) started in February 2009, by resident Jenny Long who hoped to garner support to keep the cattle market alive.

They initially collected 5,270 signatures for a letter sent to AM Nick Ramsay, held a protest which attracted more than 430 marchers, and travelled to Skipton livestock market in Yorkshire for lessons on what could be achieved in Abergavenny.

The group's argument was bolstered when it was discovered that according to the Abergavenny Improvements Acts of 1854 it was a legal requirement for the authority to maintain a cattle market within the boundaries of Abergavenny.

Monmouthshire County Council immediately put the wheels in motion to call for the Act to be repealed and in 2012 Welsh Government Minister Carl Sargeant agreed with MCC's case and paved the way for the cattle market and adjacent slaughterhouse buildings to be demolished.

In a final bid to prevent the closure of the cattle market KALM?announced that it would challenge the decision through the High Court with a judicial review and a new and heated legal battle began.

After many months of preparation and bitter arguments the case was heard at the High Court in Cardiff before Justice Nicola Davies who agreed that the council had taken conservation, environmental and socio-economic issues properly into account when reaching its decision and allowed for the decision to repeal the Abergavenny Acts to stand.

Just months later, after initially vowing to fight on, KALM announced it would cease its opposition to the development, and in March the bulldozers moved in to begin the demolition of the Victorian slaughterhouses ahead of the start of the Morrisons development, which it is anticipated could be opened by September 2014.

The new Monmouthshire Livestock Centre officially opens on November 29 with the town centre site due to be handed over to Morrisons shortly afterwards.

A spokesman for Morrisons told The Chronicle, "We've just heard about the planned opening of the new cattle market, but there are other occupiers on the site that need to move and we've not had official notification of when we will be given vacant possession of the whole site.

"Meanwhile we have a number of other contractual obligations to satisfy and we are working on these."

The company also addressed local rumours that development could be delayed as the site had been used to house livestock.

"We are not aware of any regulation to that effect but we will look into it to be sure," said a Morrison's spokesman.

A spokesman for Monmouthshire County Council confirmed that there were two businesses which still occupied premises at the cattle market site but said both leases expired at the end of the current calendar month.

"Subject to these premises being vacated we would expect to offer Morrisons vacant possession of the site by the middle of December which is consistent with our initial plans," said MCC's spokesman.