KEY aspects of plans for a major housing development at a riverside brownfield site in Newport are set to be modified.

Planning permission was granted for 251 homes to be built on the site - south of Glan Usk primary school, off Herbert Road - in 2015.

The cleared site, of almost 13 acres and previously occupied by industrial units, has since been acquired by the Pobl Group, which comprises eight housing organisations.

And it has submitted a new planning application for the site, confident that its proposals improve on those already approved.

A report accompanying the planning application that has been submitted to Newport council describes the original development as having a "density-driven layout" that resulted in "numerous unsatisfactory features".

The number of homes proposed for the site has now been reduced to 206, comprising a mixture of houses and flats.

Twelve different house/apartment types are proposed, and the latter will be up to three storeys high.

The new proposals also seek to address the "sea of parking" fronting the River Usk that would have resulted under the original proposals, by bringing the dwellings nearer the river with the parking places behind them.

The report also describes the 2015 plan as having a dense, incoherent layout, an unattractive site entrance, an unsuitable housing mix, and poor landscaping.

By contrast, it describes the new proposals as having a more coherent layout, a mix of dwellings that represent "Pobl affordable housing demand", more parking provision, increased landscaping. A riverside walk is also included.

The entrance to the site for vehicles - at the corner of Collier Street and Courtney Street, has been completed as part of phase one of the development, through the existing planning permission. The new planning application for the site proposes to improve this access.

Pobl Group comprises Charter Housing Association, Gwalia Care and Support, Solas Cymru, Derwen, Reach (Supported Living), Serenliving, Gwalia, and Gwalia Trust.

It is expected that the application will be considered by Newport council's planning committee in the late spring or early summer.