CAMPAIGNERS who fought proposals for 600 homes at Llanfrechfa Grange will meet healthcare planners to discuss the potential effects of a new 450-bed hospital on people living nearby.

Gwent Healthcare Trust is focusing on the existing Grange site and surrounding land to host a new Specialist and Critical Care Centre, centrepiece of Gwent-wide hospital services modernisation.

But FLAG (Friends of Llanfrechfa Action Group) is concerned about the impact increased amounts of traffic might have on Llanfrechfa villagers, living on the opposite side of the B4236 Caerleon Road to the Grange site.

A public meeting was held before Christmas where the trust revealed several options for siting the hospital on land to the north and south of the existing hospital, as well as on the existing hospital site.

But FLAG's acting chairman Don Corbett, said the information available was "inadequate and insufficient" and issues have arisen about the bypassing or partial bypassing of Caerleon Road.

He said the report of a public inquiry held several years ago highlighted residents' concerns about traffic, and a bypass proposal existed which stretched from the roundabout on the A4042 dual carriageway to south of Edgehill, the last road in the village with access to Caerleon Road.

New proposals exhibited at the December public meeting however, indicate only a partial bypass.

"This is very concerning to us, as in one option they are using two parts of Caerleon Road as a main road," said Mr Corbett.

"We also want to know what is happening with land outside of any hospital site, because until recently no-one has ever mentioned there would be housing along with the hospital.

"We have understood that it would be a hospital or housing, not both."

A FLAG delegation will next week meet consultants involved in the hospital planning and design work, to clarify the potential effects.

"People living on Caerleon Road must be protected. Llanfrechfa residents will have a problem with traffic, and hospital traffic is night and day. That has not been taken into consideration," said Mr Corbett.

"It's not a case of being belligerent, or of there being big opposition to a hospital. It is about safeguarding quality of life."