A MEMORIAL to the victims of a Gwent triple killing will not be placed at the roadside where the friends were mown down.

Bereaved family members slammed a decision by Torfaen council to refuse permission for a memorial stone close to the spot in Pontnewydd, Cwmbran, where friends Martin Connop, 31, Emma Proctor, 25, and John Gibbings, 37, were knocked down by Steven Price in April 2004.

The schizophrenic killer lived a short distance away and had paranoid delusions that Mr Connop wanted to kill him.

Price drove his father's 4x4, mounted the kerb and headed straight at the three friends as they walked along Five Locks Road to a barbecue.

Price, then 30, of Ty Pwca Road, was detained under the Mental Health Act in Ashworth Hospital in Liverpool, after pleading guilty to three counts of manslaughter. He will not be released without the leave of the Home Secretary.

The families of the victims have been campaigning for a memorial stone near the scene of the tragedy for a year.

Yesterday planning chiefs at Torfaen council refused an amended plan for a memorial stone on Meadowbrook Avenue, off Five Locks Road.

An earlier plan, for a memorial closer to the main road, was also refused. Planners offered a "more appropriate" site by the Monmouthshire and Brecon canal instead.

A Torfaen council spokesman said: "While we sympathise with the families, we had to look at the safety of the highway for other road users, if this memorial was built on the roadside.

"It was felt it would distract drivers."

But Anne-Marie Gibbings, the sister-in-law of John Gibbings, said she was "frustrated and annoyed" following the meeting.

She added: "After the first plan was turned down we did everything they told us to do to make the amended plan acceptable.

"I'm so disappointed, but I haven't the energy to keep fighting."

Mrs Gibbings helped organise a fundraising day last year and more than £4,300 was raised by the community.

She said: "We just want the community to know that money will be used for a memorial of some kind."

Mr Gibbing's niece Sarah, 16, said: "I feel let down for everyone that we can't have this memorial where they want it."

Emma's father, Reginald Proctor, said he was "very disappointed".

He added: "That's where it happened and that's where the memorial should have been. If it was set back from the road I can't see a problem."

It is understood the council "virtually guaranteed" approval for a memorial on the canal bank, near the Cross Keys Inn.