A Barry couple who have faced intimidation and abuse over a 20-year-long battle to stop people walking on their property have been told that a footpath going acrosss their driveway will remain in place.

Vale of Glamorgan Council's planning sub committee has refused an application for a footpath, which starts at the end of Clos Cwm Barri and heads towards Porthkerry Country Park, to be deleted.

The couple who live in one of the properties on Clos Cwm Barri, known in a council report as Mr and Mrs Underdown, have disputed with walkers over what they see as an infringement of their privacy since the path was installed in 2003.

In that time, Mrs Underdown said dogs have fouled on her and her husband's driveway, they have faced intimidation and at least one of their cars has been written off after a breeze block was dropped on its windscreen.

The council argued that the decision to install the footpath, known as footpath 73, was justified as it has already been used as such for more than 20 years.

However, a specialist aerial photographer presented evidence at the planning sub committee meeting which suggested this may not be the case.

The applicant, Karen Medhurst, said that when an order was made for footpath 73, Clos Cwm Barri was an unadopted road with no proven public access rights to the start of the footpath at the end of Clos Cwm Barri – known as point A in a council map referencing the footpath.

Ms Medhurst said: "Access along Clos Cwm Barri to order point A, was limited to phase 1 and 3 residents, whose conveyances granted them 'rights' to pass along unadopted estate roads.

"They had no 'rights' to pass over the private drive serving 6 and 8 Clos Cwm Barri.

"Use of the private drive by uninvited residents was therefore 'by force' because it breached the terms of their conveyances."

Taylor Wimpey obtained planning permission to build new homes on Cwm Barry Farm off Pontypridd Road in 1994.

Applications were made for the deletion of footpath 73 in 2009, however these were dismissed.

Christine Cox of Air Photo Services was instructed by the applicant to undertake a study of the site.

She said that aerial photographs taken in 1979, 1981, 1990, 1992 and 2000 show that there is no trace of a public right of way along what is now footpath 73 during that period.

A council report presented to the planning sub committee claims that "aerial photographs cannot in any event provide persuasive evidence of the status of a right of way or the basis on which it is used."