WORK to build houses on the former Tredegar Park golf course have progressed a step further, with developers now hollowing out a grassy reservoir to take in water when the River Ebbw floods.

The low-lying land is on a flood plain in the west of Newport and to get planning permission Newbridge Construction Limited had to promise to strengthen flood defences.

When work is finished, around 150 new homes will be built on the 92 acre site.

Newport City Council and Natural Resources Wales agreed to the plan on the condition the company built defences which would protect all houses downstream "at times of severe flooding", including properties in Duffryn.

Developers said before the work, even Duffryn High School was at risk but now would be protected against anything but a freak one-in-160-year flood.

The first phases involved repositioning a "bund" (a raised earthy bank alongside the river) in Tredegar Park sports Ground, affecting some of the sports pitches.

After this, developers chopped down poplar and cypress trees ready for the current phase, making a defence barrier between the M4 and the River Ebbw.

Bulldozers were expected to start digging out a reservoir today, which will normally look like a dry, grassy bowl but will take in water in an “extreme” flood severe enough to occur once in every 50 years, taking pressure off the river downstream.

Sloping back to the Ebbw, it will be designed to easily drain water back when the water level recedes.

Builders will also lay a cycle path connecting Tredegar Park Sports Ground with Bassaleg and when the site is completed it will be open to the public as a park.

A spokesman for Newbridge Construction Limited said: “We are delighted to be starting work on this next phase which will lead to much needed private and affordable housing.

"We have worked closely with Newport City Council and Natural Resources Wales to ensure the best solution for the site in terms of flood alleviation and its future uses for the local community.

"The result will be a landscape which is more in keeping with a UK parkland setting whilst substantially improving the level of flood protection to Duffryn and other low lying areas downstream.”