Calls for more attention to be paid to the design and layout of housing developments in an era of a climate emergency have been made this week.

Town councillors on the planning committee are leading the way in the approach to housing developments and it was claimed that the current design of the outline plans passed in 2017 for 70 homes on Rockfield Road is out of date with current changes to the climate and should be challenged in a post climate awareness age.With the county council and the Welsh government (WG) declaring a climate emergency this year, Councillor Rob Caffel is tasking them to put flooding concerns ahead of housing targets and Cllr Anthea Dewhurst said they should consider putting "houses on stilts" or similar to accommodate the flood risk.At the meeting on Monday night, 20th January, Cllr Rob Caffel said he had been in communication with Mr Craig O’Connor, Head of Planning at Monmouthshire County Council (MCC) who had provided him with information about retrospective planning permission.  Mr O’Connor confirmed that the development on Rockfield Road had been granted permission in 2017 and so could not have it retrospectively rejected.  Cllr Caffel said that since 2017 there had been significant changes that should affect a development’s planning permission, most importantly the declaration of a climate emergency by the WG, MCC and town council. He added that the climate emergency should be “at the forefront of councillors’ minds when considering planning permission especially with the recent flooding issues highlighting the impact of such an emergency”.  He said they should challenge MCC on these points or speak to the Welsh Planning Inspectorate.Cllr White said that she was a county councillor at the time of this application and she is aware of the amount of work that went into this application and she is unsure that all this work could be unravelled.  Furthermore, Cllr White was concerned about potential rule breaking if the council’s planning committee challenged MCC.  It was agreed to add this as an agenda item on the full council meeting on 3rd February to be discussed by all councillors.