PLANNERS approved the conversion of a riverside warehouse into homes and offices, despite warnings it could flood and trap residents.

The Environment Agency says Monmouthshire councillors should not have agreed a new riverside development because of the danger of flooding - even though the agency has spent £1m in a bid to stop that happening.

The scheme will convert The Workshop on The Back in Chepstow, by the River Wye, into offices and appartments.

The Environment Agency objected to the plan, telling the council there is a risk of flooding if a £1m flood alleviation defence scheme built in 2000 fails.

It warned that if the property did flood, rescuing anyone trapped could be very difficult.

In a report discussed by the council's Planning committee, the agency said that in the event of a breach of the defence "sudden inundation of the site would occur", and the basement floor would be more than two metres underwater.

It added: "Occupants may be trapped and rescue may be hazardous and difficult," and as a result, considered the risk to occupants in the basement area to be "unacceptably high".

But planners say they have reacted to that report and amended the application so that the basement is only used as office space and that residences are restricted to the upper storeys.

Planning committee chairwoman Gwyn Eburne said: "There are only high tides in the morning and the evening, so using the basement as offices makes a difference.

"If they are occupied in office hours, then you could say they are cutting the risk down to the morning high tide - but we don't believe there is a risk, we think the EA is just covering itself.

"In Monmouthshire, virtually everywhere we can build homes is on a flood plain.

"The committee felt the EA should have more faith in its own flood alleviation scheme."

But a spokesman for the EA said: "When flood defences are built, they are only designed to protect to a certain degree.

"We object to any new properties built or converted which will attract more people into a risk area."