Planned housing could choke roads – residents
APLANNED housing development on a former university campus could overwhelm a town’s already struggling road network, residents claim.
Caerleon, a historic Roman settlement near Newport, has been blighted by traffic problems for many years.
Narrow one-way streets built centuries ago regularly struggle to meet modern traffic needs, leading to long queues during peak times.
A persistent high volume of slowmoving traffic through the town’s one-way system has resulted in poor air quality along High Street, directly next to Charles Williams Church in Wales Primary School.
Residents fear the situation could be made worse if a planned housing development on the former University of South Wales Caerleon Campus goes ahead.
Developer Redrow bought the site from the University of South Wales for £6.2 million last year, and lodged an application to build 218 homes on the site in December.
Matt Mathias, 46, has lived in the centre of Caerleon for about 10 years.
“It’s an ancient road system built for Roman soldiers that is being used by a huge number of cars now,” said Mr Mathias. “At certain points during the day, early morning around school dropping-off time, or the evening, it is chaos and it is simply not fair on certain people. It’s such a logjam at certain points it must put people off coming into the area. If you are going to build more houses you need more school places, more doctors’ surgeries and better roads.”
The University of South Wales closed the Caerleon Campus in July 2016.
The university lodged its own application for permission to build more than 300 homes on the site in the hope planning approval would enhance the value of the land.
That application was rejected in October 2018, with the council’s planning committee citing concerns about possible increased road congestion and a subsequent impact on air quality.
The latest application to build 218 homes was submitted by the developer to Newport council in December last year.
But residents claim little has been done to address about the roads.
“It feels like people’s lives are an afterthought,” Mr Mathias said. “There are other issues. Parking in the village, drainage, roads, facilities, and doctors’ places. If these things aren’t thought about, it will make other people’s lives a misery.”
Chris Thomas lives in Caerleon and is chairman of the Caerleon Civic Society.
Mr Thomas said the Civic Society has repeatedly highlighted major concerns about the potential impact of the housing development.
“We said we were concerned about the implication of a development of this size on air quality around central Caerleon and near to the campus,” he said. “Related to that, we were concerned about the possibility traffic congestion could be made worse. These were our two main points of concern.”
Mr Thomas said members are not convinced Redrow’s current planning application adequately addressed any of the issues that they highlighted.
If Redrow’s development went ahead, it would see a number of former accommodation blocks demolished to make way for the new estate. their concerns
Redrow proposes retaining a number of listed buildings, including the Grade-II listed main building, and converting those into 49 homes.
A mixture of one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom homes are proposed, including 147 open-market and 22 affordable houses.
Newport council has been monitoring air quality in High Street in Caerleon for a number of years.
Under the council’s sustainable travel strategy, Caerleon is one of the authority’s air quality management areas.
However, peak annual nitrogen dioxide levels have shown little improvement in High Street over the most recent four years where data is available.
Joan Watkins, Conservative councillor for the Caerleon ward, said: “The figures are way above what has been deemed acceptable.
“The local authority apparently have been monitoring but they have done absolutely nothing on the findings.
“We have a doctor’s surgery, a post office and we have got a primary school. All the evidence suggests it is a major health issue.”
Cllr Watkins said she is also concerned traffic may treat Caerleon as a through route when the new Grange University Hospital in Llanfrechfa is due to open in spring 2021.
“The car is here to stay and we have this one-way system,” Cllr Watkins said.
Planning director at Redrow South Wales Jane Carpenter said: “The new application for the former University of Wales campus proposes a significant reduction in new homes to 169 and the number of listed building conversions to 49, the application also includes plans to remove the commercial development.
“We have been working with the local authority throughout the process to ensure that the planning application submission met all applicable regulatory standards.
“Working with Newport council has enabled us to incorporate specific methods that will help us reduce congestion and not negatively affect the air quality.
“Building responsibly is of paramount importance to Redrow.”
Redrow’s planning application is expected to be considered by Newport City Council’s planning committee in the coming months.
A spokeswoman for the council said it could not comment on an ongoing planning application.
> The site, pictured this week, has been bought by Redrow