UP TO 400 houses could be built on the site of a long-stay hospital for people with learning disabilities.

Gwent Healthcare Trust this week submitted an outline planning application to Torfaen county borough council for hundreds of homes to be built on the site of Llanfrechfa Grange Hospital, near Cwmbran.

The Grange, once home to almost 350 learning disabled people, has only around 30 long-stay residents left, all with disabilities and health problems.

The trust says provision for these residents will need to be arranged before any work is carried out. Last November, health bosses approved a plan to resettle residents in specially-built residences in communities across Gwent and close the hospital by September 2006. This plan was recently approved by the Assembly.

A trust spokesman said no date had been set for work to begin on the site. The plans are in the preliminary stage.

"The closure of the out-dated hospital has long been a part of the published plans for the future care of the residents in a more appropriate environment in line with Assembly and national guidelines.

"A full business case was agreed by the Assembly's capital investment board last week for the development of specialist residential healthcare within local communities.

"A full public consultation - followed by a judicial review - was held four years ago."

A council spokesman confirmed an outline application for 400 houses will come before councillors later this year.

Llanyrafon ward councillor Margaret Pead is "saddened" by the idea. She said: "I don't think it can be stopped because the area has been designated a brownfield site and has been in the council's local plan for some years.

"It's not going to stop at 400 houses. My understanding is that there could eventually be as many as 600."

She is concerned about site access and the future of the hospital's listed buildings and swimming pool, which is used by post-operative and older patients from across Gwent.

"I can't believe any developer would consider the access from the site on to the existing main road as suitable for a 400-home development. It is narrow there and busy," said councillor Pead.