PRIVACY worries have been raised over a new railway station in Newport that residents say could allow passengers to see into their homes.

The Welsh and UK governments are providing £3.5 million in funding for a new station on the Ebbw Valley line at Pye Corner in the city due to open later this year.

A planning application is currently being sought from Newport council for the station, raising objections from some residents living near the site of the planned station near Western Valley Road.

IT engineer Nick John, 47, said the station is likely to be behind his house. “You can look from the carriage directly into our gardens,” he said. “I don’t think that’s been taken into consideration.”

He feared that a walkway to the station from Tregwilym Road would allow people to be look into his daughter’s bedroom.

Although the train line from Ebbw Vale to Cardiff already goes past his home, Mr John said as the trains don’t stop, passengers can’t look in. Another resident expressed concerns about a lack of consultation with the local community.

She told planers there had been no correspondence in the time between an information meeting in March 2012 and a letter about application for planning permission in December 11.

She felt that a 21-day period for the planning application consultation was not sufficient given it fell over Christmas and new year.

“It seems that the plans are being rushed through in order for funding to be secured,” she wrote to planners.

One man living in of Veronica Close, told planners that passengers would be able to look directly into a bathroom and a bedroom in his home.

Rogerstone councillor Chris Evans wrote in an objection the location “is not a good one”, with family bedrooms and gardens on view.