CAMPAIGNERS against a controversial bid to build a McDonald’s restaurant on the outskirts of Abergavenny have said they are 'devastated' by the decision giving the scheme the green light.

Sarah Kirkpatrick, a resident and community councillor in Llanfoist, said she is ‘thoroughly disappointed and disheartened’ after Monmouthshire council’s planning committee granted permission for the American company to build a restaurant on land known as the Westgate site off Merthyr Road next to the Heads of the Valleys Road.

Planning permission was also given to put up 27 signs.

Mrs Kirkpatrick said: “I am completely gobsmacked that such a decision has been made in such a sensitive area.”

“The first thing that visitors will see is the McDonald’s sign.”

“The planning committee failed to appreciate that the location of the restaurant is in an elevated position. The building is 5.8 metres high and there will be at least 27 signs next to an international dark sky reserve on the Brecon Beacons National Park, for which I am an ambassador,”

“There are massive concerns that this development will create anti-social behaviour, increased traffic and litter which is likely to be dropped along the canal or around Keepers Pond on the Blorenge Mountain.”

Mrs Kirkpatrick said there are concerns that children coming from Abergavenny will cross the Heads of the Valleys road to get to McDonald's.

“They will be playing chicken to access the site. It should be in the town centre.”

She also criticised the lack of debate in the council chamber during the meeting and branded it ‘inadequate.’ Talia Stokes, member of the ‘No to the McDonalds’ group’ said that it is a ‘real shame’ and that the village is becoming a suburb of Abergavenny Patrick Hannay, who had hoped to speak on behalf of the group Abergavenny Campaign for Exemplary Development, said he is disappointed that neither members of the public or Llanfoist Community Council were able to make representations before the committee made a decision.

At the planning meeting at County Hall, chairwoman of the committee Ruth Edwards said representations should by in by noon on Monday and Llanfoist council missed the deadline.

Mr Hannay added that while the restaurant will create 65 jobs it will visually be an ‘eyesore’ featuring a clutter of signs.

Cllr Roger Harris said that he couldn’t see anything in the application that would merit objecting to on planning grounds and that if McDonald's doesn’t go there something else will.

He added: “We have to be brave and make a decision.”

Cllr Jim Higginson said he thinks it is an excellent site that will draw in a lot of traffic.

The committee approved 27 display signs but refused permission for an eight-metre high 24-hour illuminated totem sign on the grounds that it would be visually unacceptable.

A separate application by Whitbread PLC for a 61-bed Premier Inn, Brewer’s Fayre and Costa Coffee on another part of the site has been approved.