SUPERMARKET giant Tesco is accusing council chiefs of ignoring its bid to discuss building a foodstore on the Abergavenny cattle market site.

The company wants to open talks with Monmouthshire county council over building a foodstore there - but says the council is not responding.

A spokesman for Tesco, which already has a Metro store in the town, said: "We are interested in the site and are keen to strike up a relationship with the council, but they appear less keen and we are having great difficulties in doing that.

" We're very keen to work with them and we have an option to develop the site. What is quite puzzling is that we want to develop the site and so does the council, yet they're risking ratepayers' money to go along the compulsory purchase order route when we both want to develop the same site."

But Clive Hamersley, the council's head of policy and performance management, said the authority would "soon receive legal advice on the way forward for the regeneration of Abergavenny town centre".

He added formal negotiations with the leaseholders would open in the "very near future".

More than five years ago the Carter Commercial Development company drew up plans for a superstore on the cattle market site, and a scheme for a replacement livestock market on the Little Castle Farm site at Raglan.

But last year the company went into liquidation and there was speculation about whether their agreement with the Abergavenny Auctioneers Company, which holds an extended lease on the cattle market, had been bought by Tesco.

The auctioneers have six years left of the 21-year lease signed in 1988, with the option of taking out another 21-year lease at the end of the present agreement.

There is also the question of the leases for the slaughterhouse and two shops which stand on the site.

A spokesman for the Abergavenny Auctioneers company said: "We're ready to negotiate with the council, Tesco or anyone else with a view to securing a future livestock market for the county, but we would much rather proceed in an amicable way rather than through a compulsory purchase order which can only delay matters."

Foodstore declares interest

MONMOUTHSHIRE County Council took the decision earlier this year to develop the cattle market site rather than allow a foodstore to be built on the Brewery Yard site which Waitrose had expressed an interest in developing.

But Waitrose is still interested in building a foodstore in the town and last week its director of development and services, Nigel Burton, met Monmouth MP Huw Edwards.

Gill Smith of Waitrose said he met the MP to discuss Waitrose's intentions for Abergavenny and Mr Burton reaffirmed the company's interest in the cattle market site.