PLANS to build five houses in a Valleys village have been approved by a Planning inspector, despite being rejected by Blaenau Gwent council and a 23 year fight by residents.

Planning inspector Emyr Jones has approved an application for outline planning permission to build five houses on land opposite Pen-y-Graig Terrace, Brynithel, Abertillery, after applicant Andrew Jenkins appealed Blaenau Gwent’s decision to reject the plans last July.

Brynithel residents have been fighting Mr Jenkins’ plans for more than 20 years, with the applicant submitting various plans for the site since 1987, and said they were “over the moon”

last summer when the latest plans were stopped because of concerns about traffic.

But planning inspector Mr Jones said in his report - due to be delivered to Blaenau Gwent’s planning committee on Friday - that he was satisfied extra traffic generated by the proposals would not result in “material harm” to safety.

Mr Jenkins first submitted plans for the land opposite Pen-y- Graig Terrace in October 1987, with ten different forms of the application submitted in the last 23 years.

Outline permission was granted on three occasions but full applications were refused for a variety of reasons, including an appeal which was dismissed in 1992, and a new outline application was submitted in March 2010.

Residents in Pen-y-Graig Terrace objected to the plans because of concerns about road safety.

Gwent Police have also said the proposals could lead to more onstreet parking on an already narrow road.

But Mr Jones said the current proposal included two off-street parking spaces for each home, and plans to widen the road near the site would reduce congestion.

Mr Jones added that while he appreciated the highway conditions were “far from ideal” the proposed number of houses would not “appreciably exacerbate”

any existing traffic problems.

The inspector ruled that Mr Jenkins’ appeal be allowed, subject to conditions.