PLANS to redevelop part of a gardening centre for housing have been approved – four months after councillors were first recommended to do so. 

Six houses are planned for land currently occupied by greenhouses that have been in place since the 1970s and 80s at the Willows Garden Centre in Usk which will continue to trade. 

Inside one of the greenhouses that are due to be demolished at Willows Garden Centre in Usk
Inside one of the greenhouses that are due to be demolished at Willows Garden Centre in Usk (Monmouthshire County Council)

But, when the application went before Monmouthshire County Council’s planning committee in December last year, the town’s county councillors Tony Kear and Meirion Howells said further information on flooding risk should be sought from Natural Resources Wales. 

They said residents feared the nearby Olway Brook, which runs into the Usk, could flood, as it had during Storm Dennis in February 2020. As a result the committee instead voted, by 14 votes to one, that though they were minded to approve the application it should go before the council’s delegated panel and officers seek assurance that flooding risk from the brook had been considered. 

The application has since been before the delegated panel, but a further objection was raised by the Usk Civic Society which claimed planning officer Andrew Jones had “mistakenly” advised the committee on planning policy and the society’s objection. 

It has said the council had been wrong to consider the greenhouses part of the centre’s retail site and therefore suitable for redevelopment. But Mr Jones told the April planning committee it remained the planning department’s view that the area could be considered “previously-developed land” and therefore not subject to stricter flooding rules. 

He also said Natural Resources Wales had confirmed there is “reasonable evidence” the site is not at risk of flooding from either the Mill or Olway brooks during a severe one-in-100-year flood and it had also taken account of the increased risk due to climate change. 

Conservative Cllr Kear, who isn’t a member of the planning committee, said he was satisfied with the response and said: “I confirm those were my concerns which the officer presented and I’m satisfied with the recommendation for approval.” 

The councillor added that while he is the chairman of the Usk Civic Society he had “recused” himself from any discussions on the site or its decision to write to the council.