The owner of the Farmers Arms pub in Goldcliff has won planning permission to extend her business by adding a new area for functions.

Newport City Council planners have given the project the green light, despite some concerns from nearby residents that a bigger pub will worsen parking problems on the main road.

One objector said customers park along the “relatively narrow” Goldcliff Road when the pub car park is full, causing “issues” for drivers “and only single-file traffic being allowed through”.

Another raised safety concerns, telling the council that when vehicles are parked outside the Farmers Arms “it is very difficult to be able [to] see cars exiting the car park”.

Council planners said they “duly noted” residents’ complaints, but called parking issues on the main road an “existing situation”.

The pub’s proposals for the extension were “compliant” with the local authority’s own planning guidance, they added.

With room for a reported 44 vehicles, the Farmers Arms’ car park provides twice as many spaces as the minimum the council requires for a business of its size, the planners said in their report.

The council’s own highways department offered no objection to the proposal.

Planners described the planned extension as “modest”, adding to an existing part of the side of the building, on land which is “currently part of the service yard”.

In a statement submitted on behalf of applicant Mandy Griffiths, planning agent Steve Groucutt said the extension would represent a “small addition to a building that will facilitate groups for a specific purpose”, and the work involved would be “minor”.