CITY RETIREMENT FLATS SET FOR REFUSAL

Plans for more than 50 retirement apartments funded by Newport Housing Trust are being recommended for refusal by city planners.

As previously reported Newport Housing Trust submitted an application for 52 apartments and communal support facilities at Treberth Crescent.

A project worth over £8 million it would provide facilities such as a restaurant, fitness suite and hairdresser on the site.

However, Newport council received objections from local residents that properties in nearby Nelson Drive would be overshadowed by the three and four storey building.

They were "appalled" that a green site was being built on.

Planning officers suggested reducing the development to two storeys but the trust refused saying cutting the number of apartments would reduce the amount of capital available to finance the whole scheme, making in not viable.

The application is recommended for refusal by planning officers on the grounds that the scale of the development will result in loss of privacy for residents in Nelson Drive and because there has been no agreement to pay £126,284 towards building a community facility at the site under a Section 106 agreement.

The application will be discussed at a planning committee meeting on January 13.

CITY RETIREMENT FLATS TO START WORK NEXT SPRING

Newport Housing Trust is funding a the construction of more than 50 retirement apartments in Treberth Crescent that could start work in the spring if planning permission is granted.

The whole project is worth in excess of £8 million and planned facilities for the site include a restaurant, fitness suite and hairdresser. It is hoped work will start in the Spring and that the site will be finished by late 2011.

Already, a Community Living Club was also set up by the trust which now has 250 households as members.

The scheme will allow owners to transfer the equity from their current home to the apartments so they can purchase a 75 per cent equity stake at a cost of around £150,000.

The remaining 25 per cent will then be made available through a payment free loan from the trust.

Chief Executive of the trust, Phil Toms said: “This is all about delivering a service to older people which they are asking for.”