PLANS for more than 140 homes, a hotel and care home beside a congested roundabout will require a detailed environmental report, it has been decided. 

The proposed development would be built on 12 hectare of agricultural fields, currently used for grazing, on the edge of Chepstow, beside the Highbeech Roundabout that is notorious for delays. 

The site is beside the A466 Wye Valley Link Road with the A48 running past its southern end and Mounton Road across the northern boundary. 

The 146 homes, half of which would have to be affordable, would be a range of two and four bedroom properties while the hotel, beside the link road, could have between 60 and 80 bedrooms with the same number planned for the residential care home/supported living accommodation earmarked for the northwest of the site. 

The Mounton Road fields are included as a strategic site, for 146 homes, in the replacement local development plan Monmouthshire County Council is currently consulting on that has also earmarked land east of Calidcot and north of Portskewett for 770 homes, a site near Abergavenny for 500 and at Leasbrook in Monmouth for 270. 

Barwood Development Securities Ltd (Barwood Land), which has put forward the fields for development, asked Monmouthshire County Council’s planning department to agree a standalone environmental impact assessment wouldn’t be required. 

Instead it argued individual reports it will have to submit as part of the planning application process would be sufficient to address the various issues, from how the development would affect traffic to the impact on nature. 

Planning officer Kate Young said in a letter to the developers the detailed assessment will be required: “Having regard to the scale and nature of the development, the size of the site and the existing use of the site I consider that the proposal is likely to result in a significant adverse effect on the environment.” 

She said the decision had been reached following consultation with council departments. 

Its highways department said: “The proposal will have an impact/effect on the immediate local highway network the A466 and A48 (local and trunk road and the High Beach (sic) roundabout (trunk) a detailed and robust transport assessment will be required to support an application.” 

The biodiversity and ecology officers said the impacts on many aspects were uncertain and there was likely to be a significant impact on nature, with dormice present on site. 

Information submitted by the applicants claimed impact of traffic related to the development on the key junctions in weekday peak hours will be “negligible”. It said it isn’t a direct result of the development that the Highbeech roundabout is predicted to soon operate at capacity. Its report stressed the intention is residents will be able to access the local countryside, without having to drive and Chepstow town centre will be within 20 minutes’ walk.