A CAMERA is likely to be used to deter cars and private vehicles from using a “bus-only” road to a massive housing development.
Approved plans also show housebuilder Taylor Wimpey South Wales breached a condition limiting the number of homes occupied before the bus lane was completed and its final details approved by Torfaen Borough Council.
Despite the breach, the council has approved changes to the planning conditions for the latest phase of the 1,200-home South Sebastopol development between Cwmbran and Pontypool.
The 2015 planning permission said no more than 500 homes could be occupied before the bus-only road from Lowlands Crescent in Cwmbran to the development’s southern boundary was built.
But Torfaen planning officer Simon Pritchard said the council is aware around 850 homes on the wider site are already occupied, even though the bus lane is only “partially constructed” and isn’t open to vehicles.
However, it forms part of a diverted public right of way being used while the southern access bridge, over the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal, to the development is built.
Despite the failure to comply with the original planning permission Mr Pritchard said Taylor Wimpey’s proposed changes to the wording of the condition could be approved.
Buses
He said buses are already running through the wider development site and while the bus lane is “essential” failure to bring it into use hasn’t had any “significant adverse impact” on the ability of residents to take the bus.
The original condition was intended to ensure public transport would develop “in step” with the new housing so residents wouldn’t become “car dependent”.
Mr Pritchard said the southern bridge for general traffic is unlikely to be completed before the timescales in the revised conditions come into force as construction work has only recently started.
Those new conditions require Taylor Wimpey to provide the council with details of how a camera, or other system, to control use of the lane by November 9 this year and the system be in place within six months of the September 9 decision, which is a deadline of March 9, 2027.
A separate application to replace the originally proposed barriers, with a camera “and/or other appropriate measures to control the use”, has also been approved by the council.
It has also been confirmed bicycles, pedestrians and emergency vehicles will also be entitled to use the “bus-only” access.