Pedestrian crossing for new M48 Severn Bridge drive-thrus

Plans for a pedestrian crossing to a service station with two-drive throughs near the first Severn crossing have been approved. 

Planning permission for a petrol station and restaurant and coffee drive-throughs at the Newhouse Farm Industrial Estate, near the first Severn Bridge, was approved by Monmouthshire council’s planning committee in September last year with a number of conditions attached.   

Among them was the applicant provide details of a pedestrian crossing over the access road to the industrial estate before any development takes place. The crossing will have to be in place before the site is open for use. 

Road safety concerns had been raised by a local councillor and Chepstow Town Council that people would cross from residential areas, on the opposite side of the M48 junction two roundabout, to the fast food drive-throughs.   

Signs will direct pedestrians to the restaurant, including through an existing underpass, which it was acknowledged isn’t the direct route. Following the direct route would have taken pedestrians up a steep bank and levelling it was deemed too expensive. The roundabout and its crash barriers are also intended to be a “deterrent”.     

As a result there is no crossing at the northern end of the access road, but there is an additional access at the southern end and the plans have been approved by the council’s planning department and are acceptable to its highways officers. 

Plans for electric vehicle charging points, which were also a condition of the application, have also been approved.