Plans to build two semi-detached houses on ex-railway line land behind Park Crescent in Abergavenny have got the go ahead, despite local objections.

Meeting on Tuesday, Monmouthshire County Council Planning Committee passed the scheme by 14 votes to one.

A petition signed by 67 people had raised concerns about the potential risk to the public of ‘sharing’ the access to the proposed new properties with construction traffic and private cars.

The site is reached by a lane that runs behind an existing property (No 61 Park Crescent) which already provides access to several garage plots and a car park owned by Monmouthshire Housing Association (MHA).

But the lane also crosses a well-used footpath linking Park Crescent and Ysguborwen.

One signatory to the petition said, “As a parent of two children who regularly use the footpath to go to King Henry, I fully endorse the comments regarding increased danger from the vehicular access to the proposed properties.”

The planning committee also received six representations raising a number of additional objections, including issues about over development of the site, the development being out of character with the area and concerns that site workers along with neighbours and people using the footpath would come into contact with contaminated soil and waste.

Mrs Yvonne Spencer, representing the objectors at the planning committee meeting, said there were concerns that a ‘mini estate’ would be created on land where there was currently one dwelling and that approval would set a precedent for future applications in the area.

But she said the main objection was on safety grounds.

When she carried out a mini survey earlier this year she found that 154 people used the footpath between 8am and 9am in just one day - and a further 140 between 3pm and 4pm, including schoolchildren using headphones, some on bikes, some on skateboards or scooters, mothers with prams, elderly people and wheelchair users and one woman with a guide dog.

No-one she had spoken to that day currently used the lane as a vehicular access so pedestrians wouldn’t expect to encounter traffic there.

She told the committee there still needed to be ‘a legal discussion’ with Monmouthshire Housing Association who owned the land leading to the development site – and wondered who would be responsible if someone was injured.

Councillor Ralph Chapman, who voted against the proposal, said he had known the area for the best part of fifty years and was also concerned for the safety of schoolchildren and local residents using the right of way.

But Councillor Roger Harris said he lived on a single track lane himself and was well aware of the danger he would pose if ‘barging out’ in his car.

People associated with the proposed new properties would also know they had to drive carefully and the safety argument was not a good enough reason to dismiss the application.

MCC’s planning officer Kate Bingham in her report to the committee said the access off Ysguborwen already served six garage plots and at least two further dwellings and had been used for many years without recorded incidents.

“The actual point of access, with its proposed fencing replacing the hedge, will be an improvement in safety terms for existing vehicle users as well as improved pedestrian safety,” she added.

The proposed properties were ‘broadly in keeping’ with the surrounding dwellings and would not adversely affect the character or appearance of the area.

She said there would be ‘a reasonable amount of space around the proposed dwellings’ and that the proposal was not considered to be an over development of the site.

With reference to the contaminated land, the applicant, she said, had started the site investigation/risk assessment procedure by submitting a Geo-Environmental report. The results of sampling identified elevated levels of lead and zinc, but proposed remediation - by capping the site with buildings, hardstanding and 600mm of clean cover - would be suitable provided the imported material met the required standards.

“The Council’s Specialist Environmental Health Officer has not raised any concerns about neighbours or members of the public who would be using the adjacent footpath being at any risk from dermal, inhalation or ingestion of contaminated soil or waste from the site,” she said.