PLANS for 600 new homes along the River Wye in Chepstow will not add to the woes of motorists on the A48, it has been claimed.

The Mabey Group – which is shutting its bridge works in the town – is behind the project which includes land from under the railway crossing of the River Wye to Beaufort Quarry in Bulwark.

Many of the objections lodged with Monmouthshire County Council express concern about the extra traffic the development will generate and the impact on local services such as schools and GP surgeries.

But the proximity of the site to Chepstow means there is a real opportunity to get people out of their cars, Tim Gent of consultants Savills told Chepstow town councillors.

He said: "This is one of the most accessible brownfield sites that I can remember in my 25 years in the business.

"It's got a fantastic feature in the river and the railway station emphasises its accessibility.

"We know that highways and traffic on the A48 and in Chepstow are hugely important issues and we know that the heritage and history of the site is very precious to the town. We also know there is an urgent need for housing.

"The feedback has been largely positive but we are picking up concerns and will have to deal with the concerns about schools and other infrastructure.

"Here we have the best opportunity to minimise the use of the car.

"People on this site will be able to walk to Tesco, the town centre through links over the A48 and along the river.

"They will be able to get to the (rail) station and the bus station. There is a very real prospect that you will get the maximum number of people moving by means other than the car either by walking, cycling or public transport."

The site will be divided into four 'neighbourhoods' – New Chepstow, the shipyard, slipways and Hardwick Cliffs which will be a mixture of house styles and tenures and, between the slipways, apartment blocks.

Project manager Andrew Veitch told councillors: "This is by no means a standard development response.

"This is being looked at keenly by a number of architects, not volume building lay-out specialists.

"We are looking at it as an architectural-led solution. It is not about how to squeeze the most on, it as an architectural response and a landscape response."

He said the site had been cut off from the town for 150 years and the development would treble the length of the riverfront accessible to the public.

Members of the town council's planning committee backed the scheme but wanted assurances on traffic and affordable housing.

The only councillor to vote against the proposal was Cllr Armand Watts (Lab, Thornwell) who said the scale of it would not be seen again.

He said an official at Monmouthshire County Council had told him it could generate 13,000 vehicle movements a day and he claimed that it would "turn Chepstow into a large car park."