Decision due on 42 new homes next to city estate

Plans for 42 new homes next to the Mon Bank development, in Newport, could be decided next week.

Monmouthshire Housing Association has applied for planning permission to build a mixture of houses and flats to the north west of the existing development.

All of the proposed new homes would be classed as affordable.

Newport City Council’s planning committee is due to meet on Wednesday September 3 to discuss the application, which planning officers have recommended for approval.

Split over two parcels of land, the development site borders the railway line and Cardiff Road.

The northern part of the application site was previously the subject of an application, from Aldi, for a new supermarket – but the council later rejected those plans.

In a design statement, planning agent Sam Courtney, the director of LRM Planning Ltd, noted the site had been marketed previously for business or commercial use, and the applicant had “exhausted all lines of enquiry” to that end.

Redeveloping the site for housing would mean an “efficient reuse of previously developed land in a sustainable location delivering much needed housing – including affordable housing – for the local community”, he added.

Ahead of the committee meeting, a council planning report shows 13 nearby residents responded to a recent public consultation on the proposals.

Planners said residents’ concerns included the proposed housing being all affordable, a lack of parking, a loss of open space, and an adverse impact upon biodiversity and ecology.

In their report, the planners warned against an “assumption” being made regarding the “character” of people who live in affordable housing.

They also said the site is considered brownfield land, and the total number of homes built on the wider Mon Bank development was less than that permitted.

Parking provision at the proposed new homes would be “sufficient”, they added.

Stow Hill ward councillor Kate Thomas has also voiced reservations about the proposals.

She said Mon Bank residents “have got used to having the green field at the edge of the development” and also raised concerns about the nearby railway sidings, which she said are “extensively used”.