CAMPAIGNERS were celebrating last night after plans for 1,200 homes in Sebastopol were thrown out by Torfaen councillors – after a 15-year battle.

Delighted campaigners, who packed out the public gallery for four hours and made impassioned pleas to the heated extraordinary Torfaen council meeting saw councillors reject the application by a consortium of developers including Barratt Homes, the Welsh Development Agency, Asbri Planning and Crest Strategic Projects Ltd.

There were 13 votes for and 21 against.

Around 40 people sat in the public gallery with placards saying ‘Save Our Countryside’, cheering objectors and booing those speaking for the scheme.

Objector Mr Viv Thomas of West Avenue said: “I’m elated.

The council listened to the people.”

But Torfaen council leader Bob Wellington warned the matter could now go to appeal – and cost the council millions in legal costs.

Carole Jacob, of Friends of the Earth Torfaen, had told the meeting the development would cause traffic chaos and destroy the last rural space between Pontypool and Cwmbran.

Cllr Mary Barnett said the majority of residents in her Upper Cwmbran ward were opposed to the plans.

Cllr Aneurin James added: “We’re a small valley – we don’t need these houses.”

Cllr Wellington had said he was supporting the application. “As far as I’m concerned, I’m supporting the 3,198 people who haven’t got houses.”

Officers had recommended giving the green light to the scheme for farm and woodland near Cwmbran Drive in south Sebastopol, which is a refreshed version of one which was granted permission in 2005 and includes a community centre.

The proposal involved 1,200 house on the site, including a village centre adjacent to the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal, play areas and a formal sports fields.

Proposals to build the estate on the last remaining green land between Pontypool and Cwmbran provoked a huge outcry when they were originally unveiled in the mid 1990s.

Pressure group “Fight the Plan” was formed in 1996. Campaigners, who raised concerns over environmental impact of the development, managed to delay it for nine years, but the group admitted defeat after a judicial review failed in 2005.

Torfaen council gave approval for the scheme in 2005 but the developers did not complete a legal agreement within the specified time and so the application was not determined.

Pontypool community council, Friends of the Earth and the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) were among opponents who feared it 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 newhomes that there was in 1997 and that hundreds of new homes have already been built on the former Panteg Steelworks site.