THE grieving families of three friends mown down by a schizophrenic killer two years ago today are frustrated that there is still no memorial to them.

Emma Proctor, John Gibbings and Martin Connop were on their way to a barbecue when they were killed crossing a Cwmbran street on April 14, 2004.

Plans by the community of Pontnewydd to erect a memorial to mark the tragic day have been hit by delays.

The families and friends' preferred site was on the roadside at the junction of Maesgwyn and Five Locks Road where the attack happened. Torfaen council rejected the proposal on the grounds it could distract drivers.

A new site has been agreed 200 yards away on the banks of the Brecon and Monmouthshire canal, adjacent to the Cross Keys pub, where the friends spent their last few hours together.

However, plans for a headstone were blocked after residents objected. Now the sister-in-law of 37-year-old John Gibbings, Anne-Marie Gibbings, says the families want a quarried stone bearing a plaque dedicated to the three victims.

"The community all wants it, and it's maddening that we've had to wait so long," said Mrs Gibbings, 37, of Cwmbran.

Reginald Proctor Snr, of Mead Lane, Northville, Cwmbran, grandfather of mother-of-one Emma, who was just 25 when she was killed, said: "It's gone on for so long - a memorial would help me and my wife Frances to move on."

Mrs Gibbings said planning permission for the stone was being sought, and it would hopefully be unveiled by the end of July.

Meanwhile, relatives have called for a public inquiry into why mentally ill killer Steven Price, 32, had been allowed to 'slip through the net'.

John Gibbings' father, John Gibbings Snr, 68, of Broadway, Pontypool, said: "It was criminal that he was allowed on the streets. He should have been locked up a long time ago. It needs to be looked into and a public inquiry might stop something like this happening again."

Price is being detained indefinitely at a secure psychiatric hospital after he pleaded guilty to three counts of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility in 2004.