A THREE property terrace will be built on a grass bank between an existing house and an ancient woodland.

The three storey, three bedroom homes will have garages at the ground floor described as “integral” to the properties which will be built on the sloping grassy bank at the end of Severn Crescent in Chepstow.

Permission was given in 2019 for two detached, three-storey houses, also with integral garage, on the same plot which is within the town’s development boundary and the application approved by Monmouthshire County Council’s March 4 planning committee replaces the earlier permission.

Planning officer Andrew Jones said the woodland is a site of amenity importance and the committee was asked to decide the application, that was recommended for approval, as objections had been received from more than five households.

Mr Jones said the three storey homes will be built into the land and would be “rather comparable” with neighbouring properties and lower than the two storey houses previously approved.

Two trees will be lost due to construction but there is no objection the council’s tree officer and additional landscaping and new trees will be provided.

Mr Jones said the main consideration was the impact on Number 58 Severn Cresent, which neighbours the site, and he said while one house would have a “side by side relationship” to it there will be 2.5 metres between them, which was the same as the previously approved plans, and on balance isn’t considered to have an “unacceptable level of overbearing”. He also said there would be no windows on that side of the property.

Applicants Tomat Property Developments Ltd will have to pay the council a £24,220 contribution towards affordable housing in the Chepstow area, which will be subject to a section 106 legal agreement.

Councillors raised concern around the private access road and were told it will be developed to the council’s standards, but it isn’t intended for the authority to adopt it. Any impact or damage to the existing private access from construction traffic would be a private matter between landowners.

The committee unanimously approved the application with a condition the garages are maintained as parking spaces.

A condition will also control the rate surface water from the development connects with the public sewerage system when rainwater harvesting and attenuation tanks have exceeded their expected capacity during storms.