A CHEPSTOW county councillor has urged caution when it comes to building more houses in Chepstow.

Councillor Armand Watts, who told the Beacon the the volume of traffic on the A48 is “beyond anyone’s imagination”, has expressed concerns over the building of houses in Chepstow and the impact on services and amenities in the area.

It comes as traffic on the A48 passing through Chepstow was last week described as a “pinch-point” by chair of Monmouthshire County Council’s Strategic Transport Group Cllr David Dovey.

He highlighted the changes since the original idea of a bypass 20 years ago, and highlighted the “gold fever” as plots of lands are sold for housing around Chepstow.

“All we’re doing is building more and more houses either side [of Chepstow],” said Cllr Watts.

‘My argument is why are they focussing here.

“You just have to go down the M48 and there’s a huge swathe of land at Caerwent: tenant farmers, land they [MCC] use themselves and the solar farm there

“Land value is at a premium at the moment but it’s almost like there’s an element of gold fever as far as people purchasing land in the area because they’re hoping to get their land on the LDP.

“Why don’t they use their land to build on, instead of building up Chepstow even more with an infrastructure that is completely incapable of keeping up with the traffic that it’s got.”

Cllr Watts also expressed concerns over an increase in demand on services - particularly as houses are built on the other side of the river in Gloucestershire.

“Forest of Dean District Council are building up on the Chepstow side, so all these properties with an NP16 postcode are using Monmouthshire’s amenities,” Cllr Watts continued, adding the council was being “clever” for also using the Welsh NHS.

“There’s a huge pressure on Monmouthshire and they need to start moving away from just Chepstow because they cannot deal with it financially,” he added.