AN updated bid to develop a gateway space into Wales and Monmouth would “damage the town for ever”, town councillors were warned at a packed meeting.

Avenbury Ventures LLC has dropped proposals for a drive-though McDonald’s restaurant and a Costa Coffee outlet from its Dixton roundabout scheme at the A40 entrance to Monmouth.

But Monmouth Town Council’s planning committee unanimously opposed the slimmed-down scheme for a Marston’s family pub, two ‘bulk goods” retail outlets and 88 parking spaces after hearing strong views from townspeople.

Phil Robinson, chairman of the Gateway to Wales protest group, urged councillors at Monday’s (September 11) extraordinary meeting: “This development would seriously damage Monmouth for ever. Say no.”

He added that pollution at the roundabout had already been shown to be “dangerously high” and there were major concerns about the developer’s tanking plan for dealing with potential floods, deemed a “last resort” by National Resources Wales.

“This development is going to affect traffic, which is often at a standstill, and is going to tail back further. We shouldn’t be increasing congestion,” he added.

Since the application for Nelson Place was updated last month, on the spear of land at the top of Monmouth Comprehensive School’s playing fields, more than 100 objections have been sent to Monmouthshire planners.

Monmouth Chamber of Trade and Commerce spokeswoman Sherren McCabe-Finlayson echoed those feelings when she told the Shire Hall meeting, attended by around 100 members of the public: “This rehash still represents overdevelopment of the site and needless competition for the independent businesses of our town.

“Monmouth is a centre for excellence in education, retains many features of its historical past, has a strong musical heritage, which all work to create its uniqueness. No town ever had its uniqueness improved by an out-of-town retail develop-

ment.

“The distinctiveness of the entrance to Monmouth and the ‘Gateway to Wales’ should not be diluted by yet another bland retail development.”

She said the vacant former Budgens site in the Oldway Centre at the bottom of the town’s high street had more than enough parking and space for two retail outlets.

Charles Bowes, representing Monmouth Civic Society, added: “A retail park has no place at the northern entrance to the town. Do we really want to welcome visitors with screaming hoardings for CarpetRight and the like?”

He feared it would make the traffic worse on the A40 and Dixton Road and cut Wyesham off from the main part of the town even more.

Mr Bowes also criticised the “boring cladding” of the retail units proposed by a company “who boast of putting up 400 Pets at Home units across the country”.

He proposed that the town council take out a loan and buy it to develop a “distinctive, well-designed joy of a building”.

David Farnsworth, an urban regeneration specialist, who is developing Monmouth’s Place Plan, said: “It will damage town centre trade’s vitality and viability. It’s also a very prominent site at the entrance to Wales and the town, only a few yards from the historic boys’ school building and Wye Bridge, and it would damage the historic landscape, on which the town depends.”

Former town councillor Bob Hayward said: “It should be near a bus stop, so people can get there, but there are no buses there in the evening or on a Sunday.

“There have also been a number of accidents on that roundabout as Agincourt and Monmouth Comprehensive schools have indicated.”

The committee urged Monmouthshire planners to put back their consideration of the Dixton plan to November, for more information about the scheme to be supplied.