40-year wait for bypass on Wales-England border to go on

Ministers want to shift money from new roads to maintaining existing routes and investing in public transport, which will leave projects like the Llanymynech-Pant bypass in north Powys in limbo while the Welsh Government conducts a review of its highway schemes.

A campaign by residents in Llanymynech and Pant and politicians to construct a bypass surrounding the two villages and alleviate traffic issues has been ongoing for around 40 years. Montgomeryshire MP Craig Williams revealed in January that “big progress” was being made “at pace” on an attempt to bring the long-awaited bypass on the A483 to fruition, but today’s news seems certain to delay it further.

The review is to be announced this afternoon in the Senedd by deputy minister for climate change Lee Waters.

Conservative MP Owen Paterson, who represents North Shropshire, in which the English village of Pant is situated, described the review as “not good news”, although he expects the project to continue as most of the work is due to be done on the English side of the divide.

“It's not good news but [the project] has a lot of momentum behind it,” Mr Paterson said on Tuesday.

“It's not helpful news but this is mainly an English project so I would expect it to continue.

“This has been a very long-standing priority for Wales getting this road all the way up from Swansea to Wrexham.

“Having done Newtown and before that Four Crosses, I would expect the Welsh Government to continue to support it.

“It certainly won’t stop what we are doing.”

Last year as part of the budget, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced £10 million of UK Government funding into a consultation for the proposed bypass – which has long been required.

The ambitious plans are said to feature extensive improvements to road infrastructure along the A5 into Shropshire and North Wales.

It is hoped that if the project does eventually come to fruition, it will make life easier for people who live, work and access public services on different sides of the Wales-England border, by enabling drivers to bypass the two villages between Welshpool and Oswestry where bottlenecks frequently occur.

The bypass would also be expected to provide an economic boost to businesses both sides of the border, and greatly improve the safety of road users, significantly reducing journey times, on what is a notorious stretch of road.

The Welsh Government’s desire to reach its statutory target of Net Zero emissions by 2050 is a big factor in the planned postponement of road projects.

“A lot of this anti-car stuff is driven by urban residents who have no idea about the difficulties faced by rural residents in Wales and Shropshire,” added Mr Paterson.

“I would think, as it is a mostly English-led project, the Welsh would go along with it.”

The Welsh Government says its recently-published ‘Programme for Government’ shows how it will act decisively to tackle the climate emergency.

“Since 1990, Welsh emissions have fallen by 31 per cent. But to reach our statutory target of Net Zero emissions by 2050, we need to do much more,” Mr Waters is expected to tell the Senedd.

“In the next 10 years, we are going to need to more than double all the cuts we have managed over the last 30 years, if we are going keep temperature rises within safe limits.

“That means changes in all parts of our lives. Transport makes up some 17 per cent of our total emissions and so must play its part.

“We need a shift away from spending money on projects that encourage more people to drive and spend more money on maintaining our roads and investing in real alternatives that give people a meaningful choice.”

The full terms of the review will be published in due course but it is expected to consider how we can shift spending towards better maintaining our existing roads, rather than building new ones, and look at all proposed road investments, whether funded directly by the Welsh Government or indirectly by grants.