Drawn out lengthy public consultations, hiring of consultants, drawing up plans for where the they would put a road from the A48 to the M4 and one to bypass Dinas Powys
Over half a million pounds has been spent on two proposed roads in Vale of Glamorgan which wont be built. The Vale of Glamorgan council had been drawing up plans to build a road from the A48 to the M4, and another road bypassing Dinas Powys for several years and now the currently Welsh government have announced it would not fund the building of these new roads as part of its new transport strategy which is to focus on ‘public and active transport’.
The Vale council has revealed the total they currently spent on these two roads at: £654,698.
Where did this money go?
Expensive consultants to draw up plans for where the roads would potentially go and a long public consultation to see if they roads were actually required and supported in the areas effected.
One road in particular to be built from the A48 at Sycamore Cross to the M4 at Junction 34was very unpopular due to the requirement of house demolition and ancient woodlands destroyed.
This road alone cost £462,632, funded by Welsh Government grants
However we are to understand that the road bypassing Dinas Powys generally had the support of the local public, and was part of a wider project to improve transport infrastructure in the village like better bus shelters and cycling routes, cutting congestion.
The wider Dinas transport project has cost £192,066, mostly from Welsh Government, including £54,749 from the Vale council.
Cabinet member for transport Cllr Peter King (Labour) , said: “Welsh Government is moving very much away from road building into tackling climate change, which I really find some difficulty objecting to.”
“It has always frustrated me that the work was seen as the Dinas Powys bypass. But it wasn’t — it was the Dinas Powys transport infrastructure, because it included all sorts of things, including cycle networks and better access to train stations.”
The costs were revealed during a meeting of the full council on Monday, April 26, after a questioned from Cllr Ian Johnson, leader of the Plaid Cymru group in the Vale.
Cllr King also said: “We think we can probably pursue some of [wider work] through the city region, and we have also been awarded money for the active travel Newport to Barry route. So some of the other elements of the transport infrastructure we can pursue.
“But we’ll wait until after the election [May 6] to see who’s in charge, before we decide what to do next.”