LONG-AWAITED plans to redevelop a former scrap yard site in Newport look doomed as city planners are recommending planning permission be refused.

Developer Edward Ware Homes won permission to build 254 apartments in three blocks, as well as five commercial units on land near Usk Way and Jack’s Pill in March 2008.

But the company has since ceased trading and failing the signing of a legal agreement for financial contributions towards education and leisure facilities, which was a condition of the approval, planning officers recommend permission is now refused.

A report to next week’s planning meeting says that in the absence of the necessary agreement of £514,929 for leisure and £152,388 for education, the development would result in an adverse effect on existing schools in the area and would be inappropriate without adequate leisure facilities in the immediate vicinity.

Officers are recommending refusal on the grounds that there is no further scope for negotiation with the Bristol-based company, which is no longer in operation.

The ambitious proposals for The Edge included plans for a 21-storey apartment block, which would have dominated the Newport skyline with a cafe underneath.

Two smaller seven-storey blocks would have completed the proposed scheme, which was to include studio, apartments, duplexes and luxury penthouses.

Work on the development should have been completed in time for the 2010 Ryder Cup, but the plans were put on hold in summer 2008 following a slump in the housing market and the company later ceased trading.

The application will be discussed at next Wednesday's planning meeting.