PLANS to build more than double the number of homes originally proposed in a housing scheme in Usk have been blasted as “gross overdevelopment” by the town’s civic society.

A planning application has been lodged to build seven homes on land next to two houses on Four Ash Street and Castle Street.

The development would include three homes behind the house in Four Ash Street, which still has planning permission from an application approved in 2016.

But the new plans include adding a further row of three homes behind the house in Castle Street, and a further property between the two houses in Four Ash Street and Castle Street.

A garage on the site would be demolished to make way for the homes, and planning documents say car parking spaces meeting Monmouthshire council’s requirements would be provided.

However Usk Civic Society has objected to the plans and called for refusal.

“We consider that, in spite of the extra ground added to the site, more than twice the number of houses in this space amounts to gross overdevelopment,” an objection from the society says.

“The houses are positively crammed into the site to the detriment of other facilities necessary for the development.”

The society says the plans also fall short of providing 15 parking spaces which would be required for the six two-bedroom houses and one-three bedroom house in the application.

The objection also claims that an arboretum in the garden of one of the homes was “felled without seeking or obtaining the permission of the MCC (Monmouthshire County Council) tree officer”, which it says was required in a conservation area.

A heritage impact statement says tree planting is proposed “to compensate for the recent removal of trees on the site”.

It says the proposed development will be “high quality” and in-keeping with the conservation area.

However another objector has disagreed with comments in the planning application that the plans will have “no adverse effect” on traffic in and around the town.

“The additional vehicles associated with seven new properties is extremely likely to have an adverse effect on traffic in Castle Street, which is, in places, extremely narrow requiring vehicles regularly to mount the pavement to pass parked cars, at speeds that, although not technically speeding, are too fast for the conditions,” they said.

“The additional number of vehicles generated by this site regularly using the street will cause increased traffic.

“The site access of Castle Street is unsuitable for a development of this size.”

Monmouthshire council will assess the plans in the coming months.