NEW affordable housing – on hold since 2021 – has been further delayed due to concerns a community council hadn’t been asked for its opinion. 

It was expected approval for the development of 15 properties – including nine affordable homes – at Little Mill near Goytre would be approved by councillors at their June 4 meeting. 

The plans have been on hold since 2021 due to a block on new developments in the catchment of the River Usk due to concerns the local sewerage network couldn’t cope and additional phosphates would enter the river. 

Monmouthshire Council’s planning committee was told Welsh Water has now confirmed there is capacity to process waste water from the new houses. 

But the committee, which was recommended to approve the application, instead deferred it after Conservative councillor for Llangybi Fawr, Fay Bromfield, said she was concerned Llanbadoc Community Council hadn’t been consulted due to boundary changes since the application was first proposed. 

Conservative councillor for Goytre Fawr, Jan Butler, said she supported the application and the current chair of the Llanbadoc council was a member of the Goytre Fawr council, which she was also a member of, when it commented on the initial application in 2020 and hadn’t objected but had raised concerns. 

Cllr Butler said: “I’m really pleased to note this provides 60 per cent affordable housing, and it will offer an opportunity, especially for some of our younger residents, to have a home of their own.” 

Wyesham independent Emma Bryn said she was “a little confused” how the site met with sustainability requirements and said there are only four buses a day in the area, which don’t get people to locations in time for work. 

The site, a field adjacent to Ty Gwyn Road, would have six four-bedroom detached houses for sale on the open market and four three-bedroom semi-detached affordable houses, three two-bedroom sem-detached affordable houses and two, two-bedroom ‘walk up’ flats that would also be affordable.  

The committee agreed to defer making a decision until the July planning meeting, by a majority of 11 to four, to allow Llanbadoc Community Council and local members the opportunity to comment. Cllr Butler had urged the committee to decide the application at the meeting.