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.

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.

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 club said the existing path passes the entrance of its machinery sheds and it wants to restrict access to people walking dogs due to fouling on the playing surfaces.

Mr Pugh said he considered the club’s proposed route to be safer and an improvement and recommended the application be approved.

It was confirmed spectators 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. There were no objections from bodies the county council was required to consult including Usk Town Council.