RESIDENTS are demanding to know the future of a plan to build 300 houses on one of Gwent's former industrial heartlands amid fears the land's owners plan to sell up.

People in Talywain say they are "dismayed" that the solution to their 30-year battle to redevelop land at the derelict industrial site The British may now be in doubt.

It is understood that a mystery company is in negotiations with the land's owners over its sale, despite representatives from the development company acting on the landowner's behalf already meeting residents to discuss proposals in recent months.

Community leaders said any decision to sell the land would be a "massive setback" for the community, which has fought for the reclamation of the land for around 30 years. They warned that unless the land was made safe, children would be at risk.

Talywain community councillor Wayne Tomlinson, (pictured) who lives next to The British, said: "I'm dismayed.

"This news has left the community in limbo. The council must take a pro-active approach."

Abersychan councillor Gwyneira Clarke said: "We must be told what is happening. It's not safe there. We have had a fatality there before, so what is to stop it happening again?"

Calls for something to be done intensified in the early 1980s when an eight-year-old boy drowned after falling down a mine shaft.

The new plan for the redevelopment of the 1,500-acre site included a small amount of opencast mining and the possibility of up to 300 houses being built.

Angela Randell, 46, of Castle Wood, Talywain, said many people would be left disappointed by the news.

"We are left not knowing what is happening again," she said.

A Torfaen council spokesman said the future of The British would now be discussed at a council seminar on April 27.

A spokesman for Harmoni developments, the company acting on behalf of the owners, refused to comment.

Leeds-based businessmen John and Simon Bhullar, who own the land, were unavailable for comment.