Fears over flooding have to be addressed for development plans

Fears over flooding will have to be addressed before planning permission for new homes on part of a garden centre is formally approved.

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.

However councillors want assurances any potential flooding risk from the nearby Olway Brook, which runs into the Usk, has been taken into consideration before giving the green light for the development at the centre which will continue trading. 

Instead the application for outline planning permission, which Monmouthshire County Council’s planning committee was recommended to approve at its Tuesday, December 6 meeting, will have to signed off by the council’s delegated panel. 

Officers will make further inquiries with environmental agency Natural Resources Wales (NRW) to confirm it has assessed any potential risk from the Olway which flooded during Storm Dennis in February 2020. 

Usk councillor Tony Kear told officers he wasn’t satisfied with assurances that NRW had assessed the flood risk. 

His ward colleague Meirion Howells asked if officers would seek confirmation from the agency but was told by the council’s head of planning, Craig O’Connor, that was unnecessary as it is the responsible body and would have examined modelling for the area. 

But Conservative Cllr Kear said the Independent Group councillor had been seeking to highlight local concern and told the chief planner: “I don’t have enormous confidence in NRW. 

“All we are saying is to ask NRW for some confirmation, ‘have you considered the flood risk at the Olway?’ so we can go back to residents and say it was considered.” 

The head planner then suggested the committee vote to agree the application go before the delegated panel for approval and if it isn’t satisfied it come back to the planning committee. 

Though the garden centre is within the town’s development boundary, and the conservation area, the application was put before the committee as more than five objections had been made. 

The number of houses had already been reduced by one, following discussions with NRW, to provide flood storage on site. 

Monmouth Civic Society also objected and in a late submission argued the land shouldn’t be classed as “previously developed” which would allow building despite the flood risk.

It claimed the garden centre use was agricultural but planning officer Andrew Jones said the previous planning class was A1 rather than agricultural. 

New developments in the area are restricted to prevent phosphates entering the Usk but Mr Jones said the developers had shown due to the “unique nature” of the previous use its development would achieve a “betterment or neutrality”, which was accepted by NRW. 

The developers will also enter into a legal agreement with the council to cover the widening of Baron Street for construction access but they will not have to provide any affordable housing on site, or make a contribution to other improvements, as it was judged the development wouldn’t then be viable, with the assessment made by the district valuer. 

Cllr Howells had also said there was concern from residents in local cottages that their homes have no foundations and had suffered cracks during previous works in the area, but he was told this was outside of the planning process.