The sands of time are running out for the plans for Dixton Road.

It started with an idea for a drive-thru fast food outlet, a drive-thru coffee shop, two retail units and a public house, put forward by Avenbury Ventures LCC in 2013, dubbed McDonald’s-gate as it was these plans that brought the most opposition.

The site does have an extensive history of commercial proposals and a number of planning applications have been submitted over the past 25 years.

Originally there was a very nice Victorian guest house called ‘South View’ on the site, but following its demolition, the site was left vacant.

The first plan for the plot was back in 1989 and was an outline application (a plan in principle, testing the waters if you like) for a 40-bed hotel which was granted.

In 1990, a drive-thru restaurant and petrol filling station was added, but this was refused in 1990, then allowed on appeal the next year.

Jumping forward to 1996, full planning permission for a petrol filling station, restaurant and 36-bed motel was granted.

However it was the 2013 plans that provoked the biggest public backlash as the fast food drive-thru outlet seemed to be a red rag to a bull and provoked a great deal of public outcry over litter, junk food and proximity to Monmouth Comprehensive School.

There were cries of ‘overdevelopment’ from the town council and the Gateway to Wales Action group whose placarded protest held no doubt over their feelings for the development.

But it was National Resources Wales (NRW) who added the plan of Dixton to a collection of other doomed plans - Hadnock Road spa and hotel and Troy House - by saying that the 2015 flooding information used to calculate the plan was outdated, and even the 2017 flooding data would not “change the potential consequences of flooding to and from the site, as it will show a greater risk of flooding.”

The assessment by NRW into flooding consequences effectively scuppered the plans, now named Nelson Place, and forced the council planning officers into requesting further information on three main criteria which would have possibly offered a life-line to the beleagured plans.

Planning officer Jo Draper told the Beacon that the three areas they were waiting further information on were connected to the type of bulky goods warehouse, flooding and lighting strategy.

“To assess the impact on the town of the proposed bulky goods warehouse, we needed to know the type of goods they would be selling so we could assess the impact on the town,” she said.

Until the council knew what was being sold, it would not be possible to see the impact on businesses.

The flooding information requested was to ensure that the site could be protected by engineering works in the event of a flood and those works would not cause flooding elsewhere.

The proposed lighting strategy was not satisfactory and would not only be visually obtrusive but insensitive to the bio-diversity in the area.

“Without knowing what the end scheme was, we could not make a decision,” she added.

Avenbury Ventures were contacted by the Beacon and said they would rather not comment at this stage.