SUPERMARKET giant Morrisons has refused to comment on whether or not work to begin construction of its proposed Abergavenny store has started.

Work to bring the long-awaited Morrisons supermarket to Abergavenny appears to have begun, with construction workers seen on the old cattle market site appearing to be preparing the groundwork for building to begin.

But despite repeated requests from the Chronicle nobody from Morrison’s will say whether or not the construction has begun.

The multi-million pound project has been subject to numerous delays and which let to the firm being forced to renegotiate with Monmouthshire County Council after missing a payment deadline last year.

Around £13.75m was given up front to build the 25,000 sq ft store, with another £4m over due over 25 years.

Abergavenny’s historical cattle market was controversially moved to a new £5m facility 10 miles away in 2013, leaving the town centre site derelict until now.

After Morrisons missed July’s deadline, campaigners called for a rethink over the plan, reigniting a long drawn-out battle over the future of the site.

Councillor Bob Greenland, MCC’s deputy leader, said at the time, “We would’ve preferred not to have a delay that we’ve had but I recognise the difficulties the grocery market has had over the years and the new management wanted to rethink their strategy.

“Instead of having all of the money up front, we’ve converted some of it into a rental agreement.”

Requests for comment from the Morrisons press team were not met by the time of publication but a spokesman for MCC said, “Morrisons is currently in discussion with the Local Planning Authority.

“The planning process and applications are all on the planning section of the Monmouthshire County Council website.