PLANS to transform the site of a former monastery in Neath Port Talbot in to housing have been submitted to the local council.
The plans could see the site on land at Hillside, Neath, adjacent to Highbury Court, developed in to nine residential properties by Trends Development Ltd, if approved by planning officers.
The property renovation specialists say if given the go-ahead they would turn the land in to an estate consisting of nine residential dwellings, made up of both detached and semi detached properties, with three, four and five bedrooms.
The plans show that there would also be a connecting through-road on the site, with driveway parking, and two of the houses designated to be set aside as affordable housing.
The land, which was previously occupied by Oakleigh House and its garden and grounds, was said to have remained largely unchanged up to the 1950s, when the property was occupied by nuns of the Poor Clare Colletine Monastery.
It is understood that the monastery was closed in 2006 and sold for housing development, with the monastery buildings cleared by 2009, and a number of planning applications sought and approved as recently as 2010 for the brownfield site.
The property shares a boundary with a number of detached houses, as well as a neighbouring school, St Joseph’s Roman Catholic School, though the plans say the design of the new properties will be “consistent” with it’s surroundings.
It read: “The proposed dwellings would be an appropriate scale to hold their own within the surrounding area and would be consistent with the existing Highbury Court development where the building exteriors are brick face and site layout similar comprising a strong building design element fronting Hillside, with provisions of new soft landscaping and biodiversity mitigation across the site.”
