PLANNERS are recommending that a controversial plan to demolish the historic Rougemont School building in Newport and build houses on the site should be thrown out.

Officers are recommending that Newport council's Planning committee refuse consent for the proposal at their meeting tomorrow.

Bryant Homes have applied to demolish the existing school on Nant Coch Drive, Newport, and erect a 40-unit apartment building with car parking and landscaped grounds.

But a number of local residents vehemently oppose the plans for the apartments.

A public meeting was held in May with 77 residents attending, all united against the plans. A 105-name petition has also been sent to the council objecting to the proposal on a number of grounds.

Reasons residents put forward include that the development is too big for the site; access roads are too narrow to accommodate the potential amount of traffic; and a building of historic value and trees subject to preservation orders could be lost.

One resident said: "What they propose to put there amounts to no more than a condensed housing estate."

Other residents have said that while traffic problems at the school are restricted to week days in term time at 9am and 3pm, traffic associated with the flats would be a permanent thing.

Calls were also made for a preservation order to be placed on the First World War building as they believe the school to be of architectural interest.

Newport West MP Paul Flynn says that any major change to the site would detract from the semi-rural nature of the road.

Planning officers have recommended refusal of the proposal because they say it will infringe other residents' privacy, cause too much demand for parking, could be detrimental to highway safety and would result in the loss of a mature lime tree.

* Plans to build a new site at Rougemont school's Llantarnam Hall site have been approved by Torfaen council, and the aim is to move pupils there from the Allt-yr-Yn base.