The scheme was scrapped as a consequence of price and the affect on the setting
It is likely one of the most contentious, and talked about points in Wales – ought to there be a brand new part of motorway in south Wales to ease the visitors jams that construct up on the M4?
Plans for an M4 reduction highway have been drawn up, and some huge cash was spent on them earlier than the Welsh Authorities mentioned it wasn’t going forward because it had pledged beforehand. If it had been constructed, there would have been a 14-mile, six-lane motorway for folks travelling to and from south Wales.
It might have included a bridge constructed throughout the River Usk, in addition to main remodelling of M4 junctions 23 Magor and 29 at Cardiff.
The intention was to alleviate congestion on the present M4 route which runs north of Newport, notably on the Brynglas tunnels – the place there it narrows to 2 lanes. For our free every day briefing on the largest points going through the nation, signal as much as the Wales Issues publication right here
However after years of debate, and, prices of £114m since 2013, simply over six years in the past, then-First Minister Mark Drakeford went again on a 2016 Labour manifesto pledge mentioned the highway wouldn’t be going forward, as a consequence of a mixture of things – its price and affect on the setting.
He went towards the discovering of the general public inquiry inspector’s report which backed the scheme, though the inspector acknowledged it couldn’t inform the Welsh Authorities easy methods to spend its cash.
The place on the time was that the financial local weather meant the venture was too costly. Mr Drakeford went additional although saying, it could not have gone forward even when it was reasonably priced due to the affect on the Gwent Ranges.
A yr later, Mr Drakeford advised folks it was off the desk and they need to cease making an attempt to proceed the controversy. “That call is over,” he mentioned, including he could be “concentrating on the alternate options” for fixing the main visitors issues within the space.
The First Minister is now not Mr Drakeford, however the present publish holder, Eluned Morgan, doesn’t plan to reopen the controversy.
In a Senedd committee in December, she mentioned: “We did not develop the M4 reduction highway, there’s nonetheless an issue, and Burns has set out some suggestions, and we do have to guarantee that we fulfil our obligations to enhance the scenario in relation to the M4.”.
Then, earlier this yr, in a stay query and reply session for WalesOnline she mentioned there merely wasn’t the cash to pay for a reduction highway.
She mentioned she understood frustrations, “we have all been in these visitors jams” however she mentioned “fixing it prices over £1bn and we simply do not have that cash”. Her focus was getting folks to make use of alternate options, together with trains, she mentioned.
Within the UK Authorities’s spending evaluate final week, which units out their monetary plans for the approaching years, chancellor Rachel Reeves dedicated £445m to rail in Wales together with £300m for works on issues just like the 5 railway stations prompt by Lord Burns as a substitute for the reduction highway. You possibly can examine these right here.
Regardless of that, as we begin to see political events strive carve out their pitch to voters for the Senedd election in Could 2026, the Welsh Conservatives have put the controversy again on the desk and this afternoon (June 18) will increase it for dialogue within the Senedd.
Their name – which will even be a manifesto pledge – is for “the Welsh Authorities to ship an M4 reduction highway” and that they “remorse that this month marks six years because the M4 reduction highway venture was scrapped”. There might be a 60-minute debate on the problem.
Nevertheless, any vote is not going to be binding, and won’t have the help of Plaid Cymru and Labour whose members outnumber the Conservatives.
Plaid Cymru will nonetheless criticise the Labour authorities due to “the failure of Welsh Authorities to rapidly refocus funding initially earmarked for the M4 reduction highway venture in direction of an alternate imaginative and prescient for a sustainable built-in Welsh transport community, together with giving precedence to addressing the congestion points round Newport”.
Labour has tabled a substitute for the Conservative movement being mentioned, saying it “deplores” what it calls “empty guarantees” from the Conservatives. The controversy is because of begin round 6pm on Wednesday, June 18.
