Commenting on the high levels of traffic congestion that have affected the city of Newport and its surrounding area this week following a lorry fire in the Brynglas Tunnels on Tuesday, William Graham AM said:
‘I was profoundly disappointed to read the letter sent to all Assembly Members from the Assembly Government Minister responsible for Transport this morning. The Minister fails to identify the need for a new independent strategic review of traffic flows on the M4 in the Newport area and fails to recognise that the work to upgrade the Queensway Road through the Llanwern Steelworks will not provide a long term solution to the traffic chaos that is an all too familiar occurrence for people and business in Newport.’
The Conservative Group Chief Whip and Business Minister continued;
‘Like many people who live and work in Newport, over the last three days I have experienced at first hand the delays and frustration caused by the inadequacy of measures designed to improve traffic flow. The current suggested diversion route for motorists to take between the Coldra roundabout on Junction 24 of the M4 motorway and Tredegar Park at Junction 29 passes over eight roundabouts, four sets of traffic lights and runs alongside schools, retail parks, the Newport International Sports Village and residential areas and is clearly only suitable as a short term measure. It is the inadequacy of this diversion that underlines that the Assembly Government’s proposed solution is a poor alternative to the planned M4 relief road scrapped by the previous Assembly Government.’
‘I firmly believe that the idea of M4 relief road will have to be re-visited. It is difficult to estimate the economic cost of extended journey times and Newport grinding to a standstill over the last three days but the final figure will run into millions of pounds. Successive Labour-led Assembly Governments have dithered over how to address congestion on the M4 motorway depriving the local population of social and economic opportunities and on behalf of the many angry constituents who have contacted my office this I call on this Government to fully review the adequacy of the arrangements his predecessor made to tackle the problem.’
