RESIDENTS told a Planning inquiry they were “shocked and appalled”

by the lack of consultation over the potential development of 22 new homes at Bethesda Field, Rogerstone.

People living in Bethesda Close, which borders the field, told a hearing at Newport civic centre that they had been left in the dark over development proposals from Rogerstone Community Council.

Ian Phillips, chairman of the Bethesda Field Action Group, said he and fellow residents felt they had been misled.

The inquiry follows an appeal against a refusal by Newport City Council’s planning committee to grant the community council permission for Bethesda Field to be used for new homes.

“The first we heard about the development proposals was when we sawmen in fluorescent jackets who said they were carrying out a survey,”

said Mr Phillips.

“The exhibition stage of the planning consultation was a total shambles.

“There were only a few posters put up around the village but the poster itself had nothing to do with the sale of Bethesda Field.

“It merely invited residents to attend an exhibition to show proposed improvements to the village.

“There was no mention of the sale to provide the money to pay for these.”

He also told planning inspector Emyr Jones that minutes from a council meeting in late 2010 advised councillors to reply “no comment”

to inquiries from residents about Bethesda Fields.

Tracey Clifford, also of Bethesda Close, said she resorted to contacting the Information Commissioner after the community council turned down a Freedom of Information request for the release of council minutes relating to the proposed development. She said she was told the refusal was due to “commercial sensitivity.”

Mrs Clifford said: “The community council’s behaviour has been unbelievable and extremely authoritarian.”

Mr Jones earlier heard from Morag Ellis QC, representing Asbri Planning on behalf of Rogerstone community council, who said the appeal site had been for let for horse grazing for years, with no public access, and that an appraisal of the site’s landscape concluded it did not have important visual landscape qualities.

The inquiry has concluded and a judgement will be published later this year.