THIRTY protesters battling against the construction of a Chepstow skate park were arrested on Friday, after they brought building work to a halt for the second time.

And one protester who refused to move from the site, 66-year-old Bill Pegg, collapsed while he was being taken away by police.

The ongoing row erupted again at around 3pm when campaigners refused to move from a public footpath on Piggy's Hill, Bulwark, which runs directly through the construction site.

Developers had been trying to put a temporary cabin on site and blocked the footpath using tape and red spray paint.

Police told protesters that if they refused to move they were in breach of the peace. Many of the protesters were "de-arrested" immediately on the condition they did not go back on to the construction site. Those who returned were arrested again and told they could be taken to Newport Police Station.

Former Royal Artillery staff sergeant Mr Pegg, aged 66, of St George Road, who has undergone two triple heart bypass operations, was treated by paramedics at the scene after suffering chest pains before being taken to Newport's Royal Gwent Hospital.

As the Free Press went to print lon Wednesday his wife Valmai told us he was "on the mend."