Caerleon campus housing rejection 'disappointing', university says

The scheme proposed 263 new houses while existing campus buildings would be turned into apartments

The refusal of plans to build more than 300 homes on a former college campus is disappointing, a university said.

Newport councillors turned down proposals for the Caerleon site over air pollution and traffic concerns.

The University of South Wales (USW) said it was hoping to reinvest the proceeds of the development at its city centre campus.

It said the decision raised questions of what should be done with the disused site, which includes a listed building.

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USW accused the planning committee of giving "little or no weight" to an agreement to develop a £60m Knowledge Quarter in the centre of Newport, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

But councillor Jason Hughes said traffic levels in Caerleon, a small town on the northern outskirts of Newport, were as high now as before the campus closed in 2016.

"Any new development would just add to those figures," he said.

The main campus building has Grade II listed status

Another councillor, David Fouweather, sympathised with USW, saying the university was "stuck between a rock and a hard place".

He had warned if the plan was refused, the university would sell the site to another developer, or re-open the campus, leading to a rise in traffic.

A USW spokesman said the university remained "absolutely committed to developing and growing higher education in the city of Newport".

"We want to leave a positive legacy rather than a disused site and listed building at risk in Caerleon, and so we will be considering our next steps," he added.