MOVES are afoot to create a brand new livestock and produce market in Monmouthshire with the likely closures of the traditional markets in Monmouth and Abergavenny.

And although no firm decisions have yet been made it looks as if Raglan may be chosen as the site of the new facility.

Secretary of the North Monmouthshire branch of the National Farmers' Union (NFU) Ashley Jones said his organisation would welcome the move, especially as it would move trading out of highly congested areas.

"When Monmouthshire County Council looked at the market areas under the Three Towns Initiative it was realised that closure was the best option," said Mr Jones.

Not only would it help to streamline marketing and transport – cattle lorries were getting bigger and bigger – but it would open up valuable commercial sites for town use.

He said planners had a model sto follow in Brecon where a supermarket had bought the former market site and the livestock dealing had been moved to an out-of-town location.

"The consultants employed by the council to look into the matter are suggesting it will cost in the region of two and a half to three million pounds," said Mr Jones.

Monmouth MP Huw Edwards is also throwing his weight behind the creation of a new market and is raising the matter with Carwyn Jones, secretary for agriculture at the National Assembly.

Mr Edwards suggested that Ross might also be served by the new market if it closed down livestock auction facilities in the town, although the secretary of the Ledbury and Ross group of the NFU, Philip Jenkins, told the Review he had heard of no real threat to Ross market.

"Of all the markets in the area I would have thought that Ross was doing particularly well," he said, although like all markets it was suffering from the current depression in farming.