A PROPOSED multi-million pound out-of-town super university campus plus 1,500 new houses and a business park would be "fatal" for Caerleon, councillors say.

The University Park proposal, for a 420-acre site three-quarters of a mile west of Caerleon, between the town and Heidenheim Drive, unveiled by Liberty on Tuesday, provides direct competition for a planned Newport city centre university. This is earmarked on a four-acre site near the Riverfront theatre, which is key to Newport Unlimited's blueprint for regenerating the city.

Caerleon's three local councillors have launched a joint attack on the new proposals.

Councillors Paul Huntley, Gail Giles and Cliff Suller called Liberty's plans "destructive and detrimental" in creating more traffic than the town could handle.

Councillor Huntley said: "When we canvassed for the election earlier this year, most people said further development in the town would be bad. Development of this size would be absolutely fatal."

Councillor Giles added: "This will be absolutely disastrous and has not been thought through.

"The 1,500 homes might bring £33 million into the economy but will attract families who would have nowhere to send children to school." Newport Unlimited boss Graham Moore also dismissed the Liberty plan this week, pointing out advantages of a city centre university.

But a spokesman for Liberty alluded to a new study by the Centre for Economic and Business Research on the local impacts of city centre universities suggesting student communities don't aid regeneration because of the little they spend.

The spokesman said: "To regenerate an area, you can't rely on placing a few thousand students in a city centre and expecting their limited spending power to result in an economic boom.

"In fact, up and down the country, planners and universities are now working on how to deal with the negative effects of large student populations in city centres.

"Regeneration has to be sustainable. And for Newport, helping the whole economy means helping generate new business and creating new jobs. This is the cornerstone of the University Park Newport scheme; with a business park capable of delivering thousands of new jobs and truly helping regenerate Newport."