A CAMPAIGN group has been set up in Abergavanny to halt planned redevelopment work on a popular park in the town.

Save Castle Meadows are organising a walk at 11am on Sunday, July 2, around Castle Meadows in Abergavenny to highlight "serious concerns" about the Monmouthshire County Council Active Travel Scheme in its current form.

They object to the plan to change the existing paths into three metre wide bonded tracks, to extend these wide bonded tracks across the grass for the full length of the meadows and to introduce cattle grids at all the entrances.

Save Castle Meadows formed recently, after the death of a dog on the newly-installed trial cattle grid.

Following the incident, more than 1,200 people signed a petition to ask for the grid to be removed.

Save Castle Meadows is a group of residents from Abergavenny and Llanfoist representing those who regularly use the meadows for leisure.

They say they are "calling on MCC to recall the current plan and sit down to find a shared solution".

Protesters on the planned march will gather in St John’s Square, before walking a circuit of the meadows to draw attention to their "genuine fears of the consequences of these plans in their current form".  

"Safety for all users seems to have been completely overlooked in these plans," the group said.

"The plans to widen and extend the paths will also have a detrimental impact on the balance of the fragile ecosystem of these flood plain meadows.

"In particular it will involve disturbing the local otter population."  

The main impetus for cattle grids seems, the group says, to be facilitating ease of access for "fast cyclists on a mission to reach their destination".

"We suggest that the action of stopping to open a gate would also act as a prompt for cyclists to slow down and take care as they cross the shared paths of the meadows," the group argue.

"The group is not opposing the principle of a Shared Active Travel Route. We are fully behind the project of providing a safe route across the river Usk for pedestrians and wheeled users, plus for allowing easier access for all who wish to enjoy this very special area.

"We believe however that the plan proposed by MCC has ignored guidance from The Active Travel Act which seeks to ensure safe routes that are attractive to all users."

For more information about the planned march, contact castlemeadowscomments@gmail.com