A FOOTPATH running along the boundary of a cricket pitch should be diverted over safety concerns, councillors have said following a near three-year dispute.

Though the committee agreed the path should be diverted a short distance an independent inspector could be required to make a final decision if objections are received.

The request to divert the path was first made in September 2023 but had to be considered by the committee who were told the town councillor, who’d made the only objection in a personal capacity, hadn’t always engaged in the process.

The decision was almost further delayed half an hour into the Monday, February 23 committee meeting, at County Hall in Usk, when council solicitor Julian Saunders realised he is a member of the cricket section at the club that is five-minute drive away.

Councillors had visited the Usk Athletic Club’s ground, at the southern end of the town, ahead of their meeting and were being taken through the objection from Usk Town Council member Alison Ivin and responses provided by the club, which had requested the diversion, by rights of way officer Gavin Pugh when the meeting had to be paused.

Following a ten-minute delay Mr Saunders told the committee he should have declared an interest and said: “I’m a playing member at Usk Cricket Club. I’m not a voting member (of the committee) I think it’s right to declare that interest.”

The committee meeting continued after councillors were advised another council solicitor already in attendance could answer questions if necessary.

Mr Pugh said Usk Athletic Club wanted Footpath One, that runs from an agricultural field into their sports ground, and between its oval and tennis courts, to be diverted behind the courts, before meeting Mill Street at the same point as the existing path.

“The speed and velocity of these cricket balls is the concern of the Athletic Club,” said Mr Pugh who added it had provided photographs showing damage where balls had smashed into to the fence at the tennis courts.

The club, which plays in the South Wales Premier Cricket League described as the “highest level of club cricket in the country”, also said the existing path passes the entrance of its machinery sheds, which is an additional safety concern, and it wants to restrict access to people walking dogs due to fouling on the playing surfaces.

The club had already agreed to upgrade kissing gates, at the path entrances to be wheelchair accessible and widen the path at the far side of the tennis courts as well as the gravel and dust path it had created. Ms Ivin claimed grass is more suitable for wheelchair users.

She maintained her objection as she felt the existing route is more accessible and described it as a “much used and valued recreational route”.

Mr Pugh said he considered the club’s proposed route to be safer and an improvement, and more accessible than the route on grass, and recommended the application be approved.

Monmouth Conservative Councillor Martin Newell said: “As an ex-cricketer and ex-chairman of Monmouth Cricket Club my biggest concern was safety.”

He added a ball can be travelling at “well over 100 miles per hour” by the time it reaches the boundary and said: “I’ve seen many people over the years hit with a cricket ball one really nastily.”

In response to Cllr Newell it was confirmed spectators, who he said would be concentrating on the game unlike walkers passing by, would still be able to spectate and making the order for a footpath wouldn’t create any rights for riding bikes along it, as had been suggested due to the possible proposed development of a cycle “pump track” at one end of the ground.

Conservative member for Gobion Fawr, Alistair Neill, asked why the application had taken nearly three years to come for a decision. Mr Pugh replied: “The person making the objection had not engaged.”

His report detailed efforts he’d made to chase and prompt Ms Ivin to provide further details to her objections. There were no objections from bodies the county council was required to consult including Usk Town Council.