One hundred march in speed protest

Children, parents, grandparents and other residents from Llantarnam Road and the nearby estates made their peaceful protest on Saturday in the hope of persuading the council to impose a 30mph limit.

Julie Reynolds, chairman of Llantarnam, Oakfield and Court Farm Residents' Association, said: "We didn't know whether we would have six or 60 people, but in the end, we had 100. We were really pleasantly surprised at the number of people who turned up. It was a brilliant response.

"One woman insisted on coming, even though she is badly afffected by arthritis and we had lots of cars tooting their horns in support and pensioners waving from their windows and cheering us on.

"At first, we were only going to walk down the road to the Greenhouse pub and stop, but a lot of people asked if we could walk back up.

There were two police officers walking alongside us and a sergeant in a van and they were brilliant. They agreed we could walk back and offered to take anyone who felt poorly in the van."

Sergeant Steve Keenan, of Cwmbran police, said: "It was a very peaceful protest. We went down to support the protest to make sure not only that no laws were broken, but also to ensure the safety of the walkers - especially the children - which was paramount."

At present, the busy street, a designated B road, has a 40mph limit. Mrs Reynolds, 44, of nearby Hogarth Close, said: "The residents here are fed up with the speed of cars going along this road and they want something done about it.

"There haven't been any fatal accidents on it as yet, but that doesn't mean there won't." The residents plan to hold a second protest in around four weeks' time.

They are also gathering letters of support from the nearby Llantarnam comprehensive and Oakfield primary schools and ex-police officers and teachers living in the road, which they will present to the National Assembly in a bid to force the local authority to implement the change.