A SELF-EMPLOYED electrician left with just “a pair of trousers and old boots” when his home was destroyed by fire has been given permission to rebuild it.
Lyndon Rolands’ home was so badly damaged by the blaze in the early hours of Sunday, October 30 last year it had partially collapsed and the shell had to be demolished.
Monmouthshire County Council planners have now approved plans, submitted on Mr Rolands’ behalf, to build a 2.5 storey, four-bedroom detached home on the site of his former house at Wesley Way in Devauden.
Mr Rolands said the approval will help him to return to the village, near Chepstow, he has called home for more than 30 years.
“It’s definitely a step closer but it will not be a quick process and it will take a lot of time,” said Mr Rolands.
“There’s still a lot of work to do and we’ve got to get down to the finer details before we can progress things.”
Firefighters attempted to battle the fire for more than five hours after Mr Rolands and a neighbour raised the alarm, having themselves failed to it under control.
Mr Rolands, who lived alone, had discovered a piece of wood, near a fireplace had ignited shortly after waking up at around 5am and smelling smoke.
He previously said: “I walked out with a pair of trousers and old boots for walking around the garden, my phone, wallet and van keys and that was it.
“I’ve had to replace some clothes, buy a new computer and get myself up and running. It was a bit of a bump.”
The house, which will be in a row of semi-detached homes, is within the boundary of Devauden and within the Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
There are plans to designate the area as a green belt for south east Wales but no firm locations, or extent of the protected area, have yet been agreed but the plan is only intended to restrict major developments and there was no objection to the application.
