NEWPORT CITY council have decided an environmental impact assessment will be required for a new retail development in Crindau.

The proposed project, which includes two supermarkets, would be on land currently used as an industrial site.

The screening opinion request, submitted to Newport City Council from Asbri planning consultants on behalf of RJ Mason Holdings Ltd, concerns the redevelopment of 3,300 sq/m of industrial land at Albany Street, in Crindau, Newport.

The development proposals include plans for Aldi and Iceland supermarkets, KFC, Costa Coffee, Greggs, 233 car-parking spaces and three other units whose use has yet to be identified. The biggest unit, for Aldi, is 1,533m2.

It is unclear whether the existing Aldi store on Barrack hill, less than a mile from the new site, would remain open as well.

According to the proposal, the existing building on site, home to R J Mason Transport Ltd, will be demolished. The haulage company have been at the site for around 13 years and it is understood they will relocate ahead of the development.

The Argus reported on the application at the beginning of May, when the request was first made to the council.

The 1.38 acre site lies adjacent to the banks of the River Usk. Natural Resources Wales were among other consultees who recommended an Environmental Impact Assessment be undertaken.

Access into the site is likely to be via the roundabout to the west of the site along Albany road which was developed as part of the wider Sainsbury’s redevelopment. The Sainsbury’s superstore opened in 2010 on the former Crindau gasworks site, replacing the store on Heidenheim Drive, which is now closed.

The site has a varied planning history, having been the subject of now lapsed permission for housing in the mid 1990s. Seven years ago, a planning application was submitted for a scheme involving homes and student and sheltered accommodation, a hotel, offices, and shops, leisure and healthcare facilities, though this was withdrawn before a decision was made.

Though the site is close to the Usk riverbank and the point where Crindau Pill joins the river, it does not form part of the nearby Lower usk Site of Special Scientific Interest, though the whole of the River Usk and its immediate banks are classified as a Special Conservation Area.