A GIPSY family's plans to set up a caravan site in Newport is triggering fears among residents.

A Welsh gipsy, Henry Price, has applied to turn The Paddocks, Coal Pit Lane, Castleton, into a gipsy caravan site for a mobile home and touring caravans.

He said he wanted to set up a family home on the land, which he owns, so his six children can have a better quality of life.

The family currently lives in the crowded Rover Way gipsy site in Cardiff, next to a sewer works, steelworks and a scrapyard.

Mr Price says his children's health is suffering because of this "unsafe, unhealthy and unpleasant place to live".

But Marshfield councillor Bill Pursey says locals fear the site will be a blot on the landscape and damage their rural community.

He said: "We have had a number of similar applications in the past, and our fear is that once one is granted it will set a precedent for the whole of Newport.

"It has caused a lot of worry among locals.

"I appreciate Mr Price's concerns for his children's health. But the idea that it will help to move them to this site by the motorway is just ludicrous.

"They will be out of the frying-pan into the fire."

Sixteen neighbours raised objections with the council.

They say there will be an increase in crime and fly-tipping, that properties will lose their value, council tax will rise and that the roads cannot take extra traffic. Michaelstone community council is also objecting to the plans.

It argues the site is in a green belt, the entrance to the site is on a blind corner and that the site, near the motorway, may be uninhabitable because of pollution and noise. Planning officers are recommending that the application be refused.

A decision is to be made by the council planning committee tomorrow.

Yesterday we reported how a group of about 80 gipsies who have pitched their caravans at several sites in Newport - including at Newport Stadium, Spytty, late last week - wanted a permanent site for travellers built in the city.