A REPRESENTATIVE from the residents of St Mary's Road told members of Abergavenny Town Council's planning committee that a proposal to build two dwellings on land behind the town's fire station was an overdevelopment of the space.

Peter Heinler, a resident for more than 69 years said that he was representing more than 12 of his neighbours and added: "On paper the scheme doesn't look to be an over development, but in reality when the retained fire officers are responding to a call they abandon their cars haphazardly in the car park and sometimes in the street.

"If you take away the available space that there is now and build on the land it will also hinder the fire service's ability to practice their drills because all the space will be used for the parking of cars and the firemen will be forced to park in the side streets and this will inevitably cause an obstruction in St Mary's Road."

The South Wales Fire and Rescue Service has submitted an application to build a pair of semi-detached houses complete with garages on part of the car parking area to the rear of the fire station.

Councillor John Prosser said: "I've received a lot of representation on this issue.

"Nobody has any real concerns over its design for the main problem seems to be its location.

"We've all seen the car park littered with abandoned vehicles when the fire service responds to a shout and I am with the residents on this one that the proposal is out of proportion to the site especially in respect of the loss of car parking. Its a space that we should protect from development."

Councillor Paul Jordan agreed and added: "It's definitely an overdevelopment of the site and from what we have heard it seems the car park is insufficient for its current use, yet alone losing part of it for housing.

"I also think that because it's a retained fire station with officers not having enough time to always park responsibility, often abandoning their vehicles in the road, I believe their are a number of highways issues that should be considered as well."

The town council voted unanimously against the application and their findings will be forwarded to local authority planners as part of the planning consultation process.