TORFAEN councillors are due to discuss a controversial proposal to build more than 1,000 homes on land in Pontypool next week.

An extraordinary meeting will be held on Tuesday when the council will decide whether to allow the application by a consortium of housing developer Barratt Homes, the Welsh Development Agency, Asbri Planning and Crest Strategic Projects Ltd to go ahead.

Members of the public, local groups and representatives for the consortium are expected to speak at the meeting in County Hall.

In February, Barratt Homes updated plans, originally submitted to Torfaen council in 2001, to build up to 1,200 homes on farm and woodland near Cwmbran Drive in south Sebastopol.

The proposal also includes open space, a village core, community buildings, landscaping and sustainable transport improvements.

A school was previously included in the plans, but was withdrawn at the request of the council.

As part of the plans the applicants would improve the local bus service that would run through the site, create four play areas and construct a new canal bridge over the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal.

Pontypool community council, Friends of the Earth and the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) are among the groups voicing their opposition to the plans.

Campaigners fear the plans would result in over-development of the site, increased traffic, that it would destroy the heritage of the canal and devastate an area of natural beauty.

Cwmbran community council said there is no longer the initial demand for new homes that there was in 1997 and that hundreds of new homes have already been built on the former Panteg Steelworks site.

The meeting takes place at 4pm on Tuesday 5 July in County Hall, Cwmbran.