CHEPSTOW is at its capacity and any more will 'choke us' warns a Monmouthshire councillor.

Cllr Armand Watts says a report had been produced on the possibility of 400 homes being developed on Mabey Bridge's industrial brownfield site near the town's station.

Chepstow Town Council has also raised concerns that the A48 and its feeder roads are also currently close to capacity and considers that action is required to address this situation prior to further development.

Cllr Watts said: "I'm in favour of the development of the site. However the number of dwellings is of concern as well as the infrastructure in the local area.

"This development would give the town a considerable problem when you factor in the amount of cars driving in and out of this estate, which is close to the railway station and the Tesco superstore. This area is already a bottleneck much of the time and it will place additional strain on the A48 and Chepstow's road network."

Mabey Bridge has indicated it needs to sell this site in the centre of Chepstow for development in order to relocate the bridge manufacturing business to Newhouse Farm site, where wind turbines are currently constructed.

Monmouthshire planning chief George Ashworth said: "We've allocated a total of 400 homes to be developed in this area as part of the Local Development Plan. This breaks down as 240 homes on the Mabey Bridge site and 160 on a site next door.

"A report has been carried out to see the impact that 400 homes built on the proposed development sites would be on the local community.

"It was felt that it was better to undertake studies for a greater number of homes and this would have encompassed all aspects from traffic flow to drainage and flooding problems.

"Mabey Bridge have stressed that to retain their localised jobs and be competitive in the market place that they need to combine all operations to Newhouse Farm."

The detailed report into the proposed development will be put before councillors later this month before it goes out to public consultation.

Cllr Watts concluded: "If Monmouthshire County Council gets this wrong they could choke Chepstow. With little or no possibility of a by-pass, no one will want to come into town and this development could be a cataclysmic cock up for the town."