MAJOR plans to build a housing estate near a Newport primary school could be given planning permission by the local authority.

Pobl Group want to build 195 ‘high quality’ homes on vacant land south of Glan Usk Primary School in Herbert Road.

More than half of the proposed units will be offered as affordable housing, according to a report due to go before Newport City Council’s planning committee on October 3.

Plans for 251 homes on the same 5.2-hectare site along the River Usk were approved by the committee in August 2015.

READ MORE: 251 Newport homes set for green light on land near Glan Usk Primary School

But the landowners want to overhaul the northern part of the site, admitting the original scheme was “unsatisfactory” with insufficient parking and a lack of “strategic landscaping”.

A report says: “It was felt that the proposal did not represent best practice in terms of townscape design and therefore may not provide the kind of sustainable development legacy that Pobl aspire to deliver in Newport.”

Work on 20 flats from the original development is ongoing but the new application proposes to overhaul the wider scheme with a new layout and improved parking arrangements.

Of the 195 homes proposed, 106 will be a mixture of two-bedroom and three-bedroom homes, with 59 affordable and 47 market homes.

The remaining 89 units will be one-bedroom and two-bedroom flats, with 41 affordable and 48 market units.

Proposed house designs would follow a “contemporary reinterpretation” of Newport’s early Victorian architectural heritage, according to the report.

Potential concerns around flooding, noise, drainage, ecology, and highways capacity will not be considered having been deemed satisfactory when the previous application was approved.

But the new application has attracted a single objection from a resident who raised concerns about the site’s single access point being from Courtney Street.

The response reads: “We believe that the area could not withstand the traffic which will increase dramatically as a result of the new residential buildings.”

A section 106 agreement between Pobl Group and Newport City Council means that the developer will have to pay a sum of money to offset the impacts of the proposed developments.

Funds of £354,530 could be paid to either Glan Usk or St Julian’s Primary School, with a further £260,224 for St Julian’s High School.

A £122,000 contribution will be made towards upgrades and the upkeep of play areas at the Glebelands recreation ground or at the Turner Street playground.

Pobl Group have also agreed to upgrade a signalised junction in Clarence Place, a pelican crossing on Caerleon Road and other off-site footway upgrades.

Officers have recommended approval but with conditions that it can also be refused if the section 106 agreement is not completed within three months.