SIR,

With reference to the proposed closure of the livestock market in Abergavenny.

It is meant to be a wake-up call to all farmers and smallholders throughout Monmouthshire who use the Abergavenny livestock market to buy and sell their animals.

I am now a well and truly retired lady farmer in my late 70s.

On numerous occasions while farming at Llanellen Court Farm, Llanellen, I repeatedly sent letters to the newspaper opposing the anticipated closure of the livestock market, and this was absolutely years ago.

What on earth is wrong with today's farmers who regularly use the livestock market in Abergavenny?

Why can't they set up a petition to fight the closure of their market?

They seem to have no backbone or determination to put an end to this long, ongoing saga.

You all sit back and let everybody else do the talking and fight your battles for you.

Farmers alike, and yes I was one of them, who were and still are, pretty quick to condemn the French farmers for standing up for what they thought were their rights, so I suggest if you all really want the livestock market to remain in Abergavenny just get up off your posteriors and fight your corner.

I don't think any of you realise that if the livestock market is moved all the way out to Raglan as proposed, you are also doing a disservice to Abergavenny and robbing the town of it's jewel in the crown.

Abergavenny is well noted to be a market town and people come from miles away because of this.

If the market is taken away Abergavenny cannot be prized as a 'market' town!

For Pete's sake show some initiative instead of hoping the problem will go away.

It will go away alright – further afield to the proposed Raglan site.

With the inconvenience of getting there, the dreadful cost of fuel and one's precious time to be considered, is this what you all really want?

Your stance and condemnation to this issue is imperative now so I suggest action now.

Meetings must be arranged with Monmouthshire County Council, Farmers Unions, town traders, local councillors and AMs from the Welsh Assembly to get this sorted once and for all.

Do you really need a 70-year-old female farming widow to fight your corner for you?

Come on boys, wake up!

When I was farming, farmers were the life and soul of the countryside and the livestock market in Abergavenny.

They were real men, not mice.

Margaret R Bevan

(Abergavenny)