A HOUSING developer which has permission to build homes at a major Abergavenny project has submitted a revised plan for more of them.

Persimmon already has outline planning consent for 44 houses at the Westgate site – granted in September 2013 – but they have lodged an altered proposal to build another 21.

Another part of the site will feature commercial development that includes a 61-bed Premier Inn hotel and a Brewer’s Fayre restaurant. Building on those is expected to start later this year.

A Costa Coffee included in the same application has been deferred for the design to be significantly amended.

But concerns have been raised by town groups over traffic, a lack of playing areas and the revised design for the 65 homes.

They would be made up of a mix of one, two, three and four bedroom homes. The buildings would be mostly two storey with the addition of two and a half storey ones in the centre of the estate, off Merthyr Road.

Llanfoist Community Council told Monmouthshire council the plan should be refused.

They said it “just crams in as many dwellings as possible without any regard for public space and quality of living” and that it would look like “a more urban site and not that of a village in a semi-rural location”.

They also said they have worries about traffic, pollution and where young children would go to school. They say the nearby Llanfoist primary is full and there is no safe route to Deri View primary.

On new housing estates the county council would normally need 35 per cent of the homes to be classed as affordable which would total 22 on the estate. But a report by a Monmouthshire officer says only 20 per cent, or 13 homes, on the Westgate site would need to be so because of its size.

Monmouthshire council’s planning committee will consider the revised application at a meeting at County Hall in Usk next Tuesday.