TWO lakes, a cricket field and pedestrian and cycle paths are the latest projects to be approved for Newport’s £1 billion Llanwern regeneration site.

City planners gave the green light to the part of a larger scheme that will help transform the 600-acre former heavy end of Llanwern steelworks into a new east Newport community called Glan Llyn.

These include approval for some of its main highways including the main entrance from the west of the site dubbed ‘the gateway’, and a north west access from the Southern Distributor Road, which will both include pedestrian and cycle paths.

A pedestrian bridge will also link phase one of the residential development with Western Park - an area which will include two small lakes, a lake plaza area, a cricket field and a play area.

The plans, which are part of the larger St Modwen development including plans for 4,000 homes, office and industrial space and a range of community facilities, won outline planning permission in 2007.

But the collapse of the housing market and the struggling economy in 2008 meant work slowed down and the company had no purchasers for the residential land on the site.

But work to construct the first 140 homes, which will be mainly detached family homes, on 12 acres of the site is expected to start this summer.

Over the next 20 years, Glan Llyn will provide around 6,000 new jobs, a new district centre with retail and leisure facilities, a library, police station, supermarket, doctor’s surgery and a 1.5 million square foot Celtic Business Park.

The scheme will also include two new primary schools with places for 600 children and a nursery, which are likely to be built in the next three to five years.