VILLAGERS say they are frustrated building work on a small housing development can continue without anywhere to put its sewage.

Monmouthshire council granted planning permission for an extension of Rose Cottage, Llanvair Discoed and two new houses in 2009, with a sewage treatment plant discharging into the nearby stream endorsed by the Environment Agency.

However, Monmouthshire council’s head of planning, George Ashworth, said subsequently, the Agency changed its mind and refused to grant a drainage exemption for the proposal, so the developer is therefore investigating alternative foul drainage disposal methods.

Ray Stephens, who lives opposite the site, said residents have had to put up with the inconvenience of the building work without a solution for the disposal of the homes’ waste.

He said: “It’s not about the building it’s about the sewage and the environment and what’s going to happen.

“It doesn’t make sense to us to carry on when they don’t know the end game.”

Another villager, James Christie, wrote to the council in May after an amended drainage system was proposed.

He is worried if the problem is not solved, there will be “complete, uninhabitable properties blotting the landscape.”

Mr Ashworth said the developer is entitled to carry on with construction and is fully aware they cannot be occupied without approved drainage.

“Such a scheme will need to be submitted as a new planning application, and once received, the neighbours, the community council and agencies will be consulted.

To date, submission of a planning application for such a drainage scheme is still awaited,”

he said.

Brian Lewis, 70, owner of the company building the homes, Eastlake Developments, said he lived in the village for 18 years and put much time and effort into improving it.

He said he rescued The Woodlands Tavern pub from closure and helped put a new roof on the church.

“We put a lot of energy and effort into that village and it upsets me to think that residents are unhappy,” he said.

“We have done nothing that hasn’t been agreed with the powers that be.”

Mr Lewis said he is considering putting in sewage tanks which would be emptied on a regular basis.