People power seems to have finally won the day in a long-running and bitterly-fought campaign led by residents of a private housing development in Gilwern.

Cae Meldon families who have been fighting for years for a safe route to school for their children are now a ‘significant step nearer’ to achieving their goal.

After a site meeting involving highways officers and local councillors, it has been agreed that the ‘preferred option’ will be to provide a footpath next to Cae Meldon Road - something the residents have been calling for all along.

A spokesperson for Monmouthshire County Council has told the Chronicle, “Our highways team has made enquiries about ownership of the land adjacent to Cae Meldon and a new footpath is to be included in our programme early in the 2017/18 financial year.”

Most of the land adjacent to the road already belongs to the county council, but the estates team had needed to establish who owned the remainder before any progress could be made.

The residents had previously been led to believe that the cash-strapped council couldn’t find the money in its budget for a footpath scheme.

One of the campaigners, Jon Crawley, said, “It’s a step in the right direction and more than we’ve had out of MCC before but now it’s a case of ‘for God’s sake get on with it!’.

“From previous experience MCC are adept at leaving things at the back of the filing cabinet.”

The county council had already erected signs designed to slow the traffic to 30mph and warning drivers of pedestrians using the road, and additional traffic calming measures were under consideration - but the campaigners had continued to fight for a footpath, arguing that their children faced serious danger from traffic using the narrow road.

In an open letter Peter Jeremiah had accused the powers-that-be of ‘placing budgets and bureaucracy ahead of the safety of vulnerable children’,

He told the Chronicle that he and other residents were extremely unhappy and concerned that ‘after several petitions, council meetings, hundreds of phone calls, letters and emails to the police, local MP, MCC, Brecon Beacons National Park Authority and the Highways Agency there is still no safe pedestrian access to the village’.

He feared it was an accident waiting to happen.

There are 33 families living on the estate, many with young children.

Jon Crawley himself has a two-year-old child who starts nursery school in September and another campaigner, Nadine Richards has three children under five - two at infants school and one at nursery.

“We’ve been left out on this island with no link to the village,” said Jon.

“The 30mph sign doesn’t do enough to slow the traffic down.

“At 8.30am on weekdays you’ll usually see two or three prams being pushed along the lane by mums walking their older kids to school, and the same on the way home in the afternoon.

“MCC should have resolved this three years ago. If the residents hadn’t kicked up a fuss nothing would have been done.”