Rougemont School has applied for planning permission to change a large area of agricultural land into playing fields for pupils.

Torfaen Council received the application this week and will make a decision at a future date. The 31-acre site is between the Malpas Road school and Pentre Lane in Llantarnam. A planning statement in the application says that between 2001 and 2006 this land was used by the school as playing fields before it reverted to ‘agricultural grazing for a period of time before lying fallow’.

During that time the school leased the land from the owner.

The school has been given the opportunity to buy the land but wants to make sure its proposed use as playing fields would be allowed before making a decision. The statement says that the application ‘does not include operational development as none is proposed’.

The applicant says that ‘significant areas of the land’ would remain unused because of the topography needed for rugby and cricket pitches and this would ‘enhance the ecological diversity of the land’.