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A homeowner’s application to take down part of their garden wall to create a driveway has been approved after being under consideration for a year. 

John Bradbury put in his application for planning permission to his local council on January 30, 2025, having already approached it for pre-application advice in March 2024. 

He finally got the go-ahead for the work at his home off Welsh Street, on the edge of Chepstow’s conservation area, from planners at Monmouthshire County Council just two days before Christmas 2025, which was only a month and seven days short of a full year since his application was submitted. 

The council’s highways department had objected to the original proposal to create a new driveway as they said it would have been too steep, at an apparent incline of 28.3% which was greater than the 10% incline stated in the originally submitted plans. 

The highways department however withdraw the objection it had made in March 2025 after Mr Bradbury submitted new engineering drawings in October, which were acceptable to officers who said the amended plans showed a gradient of one in 12 – or 8.3%. 

As Mr Bradbury’s stone cottage is within the conservation area officers also had to consider an application to demolish part of the stone garden walls, intended to create the new driveway, which was also approved. 

Planning officer Ryan Bentley said in his report, which approved the application, planning permission was necessary as construction of two retaining block walls, with aggregate infill providing the ramp, is considered an engineering operation. 

His report also said there would be a “limited visual impact” and the addition of a native hedgerow would “soften the impact of the driveway” and the development is acceptable which meant the application for work in the conservation area, which was considered alongside the planning application, could also be approved. 

An elder tree and a lilac tree will be lost but replaced with two fruit trees and two mixed species hedgerows.