| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
10.34 pm
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales (Mr. Peter Hain): I should like to express my gratitude for the congratulations of the hon. Member for Meirionnydd Nant Conwy (Mr. Llwyd) on my appointment. I congratulate him on securing this debate. He is a widely respected hon. Member, especially for the diligent way in which he represents his constituency. I am aware that he has shown a keen interest in the improvement of the A494 trunk road, particularly the part in his beautiful constituency.
At the outset, I should say that the new Government propose a radically different transport policy in Wales--not that that will be difficult. The Tory Government had no coherent transport policy at all. Thatcherism just left it all to market forces and the result has been shambolic. Our roads are becoming mobile car parks, our railways have been chopped and privatised, and deregulation has brought savage cuts in bus services, resulting in many outlying areas being virtually cut off. Those on low incomes or pensions are consequently trapped and forced to buy from expensive local shops as the age of car driver shopping overshadows us all.
All that is undermining the quality of life and the environment. We will ensure that a new transport policy has a strong green dimension.
As part of our strategic review of roads in Wales, I have made it clear that the completion of two east-west super-highways will be priorities. The completion of the dualling of the A55 across Angelsey will provide a rapid road link from Chester to Holyhead, and the upgrading of the A40 in Pembrokeshire will link the Severn crossings to Fishguard. Both will be major arterial routes for inward investment and increased trade.
The A494, which is known as the Dolgellau-to-south-of-Birkenhead trunk road, carries traffic between mid-Wales and the north-west of England, and to the motorway network beyond. I agree with the hon. Member for Meirionnydd Nant Conwy that it is an arterial road and should be given significance, as he has argued.
In the 1994 review of roads in Wales, the section of the A494 between the Wales and England boundary and its junction with the A55 at Ewloe was designated as a major strategic route, with average daily traffic flows in excess of 54,000 vehicles. In the same document, the section
between Ewloe and Dolgellau, with much reduced traffic flows of 16,000--to fewer than 2,000 vehicles a day in some places--was designated as a route where no major strategic improvements to increase overall route capacity for long-distance traffic were considered necessary. That designation recognised its environmental setting. Any improvements on the section that were to be taken forward would be selected and targeted at specific problems such as the one described by the hon. Member.
A number of improvements have been carried out on the A494 over the last 10 years or so. In the constituency of the hon. Member for Meirionnydd Nant Conwy, the Pont Rhyd Sarn scheme, which is located between Dolgellau and Llanuwchlyn, involved the construction of a new bridge to replace a substandard one--which had been the site of a number of accidents--and was opened to traffic in the early 1990s.
The schemes already undertaken have been part of the Welsh Office's major and medium scheme programmes. In addition, many minor improvements have been undertaken over the years. There are several proposed improvement schemes in the Department's programme, which is split into major schemes, medium schemes and minor improvements. In the major scheme programme, which includes all schemes costing more than £3 million, two categories apply to the A494 trunk road. The following two schemes are in preparation: the A494 Deeside park to Ewloe improvement and the proposed Ewloe interchange improvement.
In the longer term, there are two further A494 schemes: first, the Mold to Ewloe improvement, which will involve the construction of a dual carriageway between the northern end of the Mold bypass and the proposed Ewloe interchange improvement; and, secondly, the proposed Llanbedr bypass improvement scheme, which is the final major scheme for the A494 currently in the Department's programme.
The Department's current medium scheme programme includes two A494 schemes in the hon. Gentleman's constituency. The first is the proposed Merllwyn Gwyn to Glan yr Afon scheme, which involves the on-line improvement of the existing substandard trunk road. The area is particularly sensitive and my Department is carrying out an extensive environmental assessment.
The second is the Drws y Nant scheme, which is the hon. Gentleman's main concern this evening. I pay tribute to him for the way in which he has pressed for the scheme to go ahead since he came to the House.
The need for the scheme arose when part of the wall and rock support retaining the road became unstable. Traffic had to be kept away from the wall and the river, and one-way working was put in place while consideration was given to alternative remedial measures. After a review of the options available, it was concluded that the best long-term solution would be to construct a new section of road away from the line of the existing route. The necessary planning and investigation were carried out.
A shorter improvement scheme was considered, but discarded because, with the significant cost of around £1 million, it would still leave substandard approaches with poor visibility at Drws y Nant station and would be visually intrusive because of the extensive rock cuttings and long retaining walls needed.
It was therefore concluded that, in view of the low traffic levels on that part of the A494--3,000 to 3,500 vehicles per day, although the volume is much greater during the holiday months--it would be appropriate to retain the one-way working until the replacement scheme was developed.
I readily concede that the problem has lasted for an intolerably long time. After 17 years, it must rank as the longest lasting set of temporary traffic light in the world. I have not been able to find it in "The Guinness Book of Records", but there was a debate in the pages of the "Reader's Digest" on whether it was the longest. We agree about the need to tackle the problem. As the hon. Gentleman said, the scheme has reached an advanced stage of preparation, with the draft orders having been first published in May 1994.
The proposed Drws y Nant scheme involves the construction of a new 1.3 km length of single carriageway road, with a 7.3m wide carriageway and verges of variable widths. Construction would not have a major effect on the surrounding landscape, as most of the land required is part of the existing road or the dismantled railway. Most of the scheme will be screened from view by the local landform and surrounding woodlands and by the proposed screen planting. There is no objection to the scheme on environmental grounds, and there is strong local support for the improvement, which would take about 18 months to construct.
The design and contract documents for the scheme have been completed on behalf of the Department by Gwynedd council, acting as our agents. This scheme start is dependent on the availability of the necessary finance. Had the finance been available, tenders could have already been invited, but the reduction in central Government funding by the previous Tory Administration prevented such action.
Our review will assess whether schemes such as Drws y Nant can be supported. We will build it if we can. It has the highest priority in the medium schemes road programme. I assure the hon. Gentleman that, as a result of this debate, I shall give even more serious consideration to that priority. Work would have started on it this year
had it not been for the massive cut in the roads budget, which was nearly halved from £187 million to £115 million over the past two years. The Conservative Government failed the hon. Gentleman's constituency, just as it failed the rest of Wales.
I promise to do my best to get the scheme in the roads programme as soon as possible. It is ready and waiting to go. However, we have been left a dreadful legacy of budget cuts by the Conservatives, and it will be difficult.
I hope that the hon. Gentleman takes some encouragement from my commitments this evening. The future is much brighter, not just for this problem, but for the many other problems involving roads and public transport in Wales. The new Welsh Assembly will help us to implement a coherent transport policy for Wales because it will reflect all parts of the country and ensure that the interests of rural areas--especially those such as the hon. Gentleman's constituency--in mid and north Wales, are protected.
We are aware of the priority that is attached by the hon. Gentleman and local people to the scheme. By all objective criteria, it should be given the go-ahead as soon as we can find the necessary finance. We need to have a general review of transport policy and I hope that the hon. Gentleman, his colleagues, his constituents and other Welsh Members will participate. Transport in Wales needs serious attention. We need to strengthen public transport, develop the strategic routes that I mentioned, and deal with the major routes that pass through the hon. Gentleman's constituency.
Part of the answer to the problems will be securing a yes vote in the referendum for a Welsh Assembly, so that we can have policies that are designed for the needs of Wales instead of policies from a distance by the previous Administration who did not understand Wales and, in 18 years, did not deal with its problems.
| Next Section
| Index | Home Page |