Commenting on the Welsh Affairs Select Committee’s follow-up report on cross-border public services, published today, Shadow Welsh Minister, David Jones, said:
“One of the most worrying aspects of the report is that it identifies a lack of strategic co-ordination of road transport policy.
“Cross-border roads – the clearest example of which is the A483 – are not being upgraded because of the absence of an overarching strategy. The Department for Transport has washed its hands of the route by devolving responsibility for the English sections to the West Midlands Regional Assembly (WMRA).
“So far as the WMRA is concerned, the A483 is a relatively unimportant local route, but for Welsh motorists it is a vitally important link between North-East and South Wales.
“The Wales Office could do much more to help ensure that the Welsh Assembly Government and the Department for Transport develop a common strategic approach, so that the A483 and other important cross-border routes are upgraded to meet modern standards.
“Until it does so, motorists will have to put up with increasingly inadequate cross-border roads.”
