PLANS for a 100-home housing development in Ebbw Vale have been recommended for approval by local authority planning officers.

Lovell Homes want to build the houses – 30 of which will be affordable – on vacant land adjacent off Waun-y-Pound Road.

The application seeks permission for 52 three-bedroom houses, with 10 affordable units, on the 3.7-hectare site.

A further 32 two-bedroom houses, with 18 affordable homes, and 14 four-bedroom homes, nine with built-in garages, have also been proposed.

Two more affordable units will be offered in the form of two-bedroom apartments.

All buildings within the development would be two-storeys high, with a mixture of terraced, semi-detached and detached houses.

Access for the site will be from the north-east from an existing road leading from the KFC restaurant, with the existing mini-roundabout set to be reconfigured to link up with the estate.

A footpath for pedestrians and cyclists is proposed from within the site to an existing pedestrian crossing on Waun-y-Pound Road.

The application has been deemed ‘acceptable’ by Blaenau Gwent council officers, with the site falling within a key area of the authority’s local development plan (LDP).

The council wants to build 805 homes on land north of Ebbw Vale town centre, with a report saying the proposals will help towards reaching that figure.

But officers have raised concerns over a lack of drainage information for a major development and have asked for further information.

The scheme has also received a single objection from a member of the public who says it has “no consideration for the need for the trees and a wildlife corridor to be left intact”.

The response says residents use the vacant land as a shortcut and that retaining it would also benefit local wildlife.

Blaenau Gwent council’s planning committee will meet to consider the application on October 4.