Montgomeryshire Assembly Member, Russell George, said he was ‘extremely concerned’ that Traffic Wales, the Welsh Government’s traffic information service, was unaware that an abnormal load carrying wind turbine blades was travelling across Mid Wales today.
Mr George raised his concerns with the First Minister today (1 May), during weekly questions to the Welsh Government leader. He also asked Mr Jones, if he was confident that Mid Wales infrastructure was capable of taking, if all the proposed wind farms were developed, over 4000 of these abnormal loads over a seven year period.
The First Minister said he would investigate the Traffic Wales incident and write to Mr George in greater detail.
Commenting, Mr George said:
“I fail to understand why Traffic Wales were unaware that this abnormal load was travelling across Mid Wales to Cefn Croes today.
“After all, it reached the Welsh border at Oswestry last night and that’s where it stayed until this morning when it was moved during the height of rush hour period. So why was it kept in the dark?
“The load went past Welshpool and through Newtown and it did cause traffic congestion at a number of points along the route; and this is just one load on one given day.
“Potentially if all the wind farm developments that are earmarked for Mid Wales are built, we could see 2-3 loads a day like this on Mid Wales roads for up to a period of seven years; that’s neither desirable nor sustainable.
“I’ll be interested to hear the First Minister’s explanation of what happened today but I’ll also be interested to see if he comments further on the capability of Mid Wales road network to take the magnitude of such loads because I think it seriously calls into question the viability of future wind farm developments on the scale proposed.”
