Following the Welsh Government’s announcement this week that it is backing a new £250m road to relieve congestion in Flintshire, North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood has questioned the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure over rail and road improvements for North Wales.
Leading the responses to the Cabinet Secretary’s Statement on ‘Transport Proposals for Deeside’ in the Assembly Chamber yesterday, Mr Isherwood said “it’s nine years since the public inquiry recommended to a predecessor Minister that the previous proposal on Aston Hill should not go ahead. I’m sure the residents of Aston Hill and the thousands living in the surrounding areas will welcome your decision to adopt the ‘Red option’ as opposed to the alternative”.
Mr Isherwood asked the Cabinet Secretary what proposals he has to engage with the businesses and individuals living on the route who will be affected.
He said: “Clearly, the A55/A494/A548 corridor is below modern standards, with some of the slip roads being too short, too close, and generating poor visibility. We understand the red route would be an 8-mile road between the A55 and A548 with two lanes in each direction, leading to an increase in capacity and an improvement in journey times between the River Dee and Northop interchange. However, clearly your decision will not be so warmly received by the people living on that route. In your consultation, you said the red route would be likely to affect about 56 hectares of agricultural land and farm businesses and that mitigation would be by financial compensation and by accommodation works. Could you tell me what proposals you have to engage with those businesses and individuals who will be affected in relation to that mitigation and financial compensation?”.
Mr Isherwood also questioned Mr Skates about the ‘North-East Wales Metro’ and the need for better rail access to Deeside Industrial Park.
He said: “In terms of north-east Wales, the four hubs you describe miss out that huge area between Deeside and Wrexham, and particularly the areas where connectivity is poorest, in some of the smaller towns and villages. I would therefore welcome a comment from you on how that will be joined up, and those communities will not be left without access, particularly for young people to work, or older people to key services. In terms of your other hubs - Bangor, presumably you’re talking primarily about the third crossing, and Abergele -Rhyl - to what extent do those fit into the North-East Wales Metro?
He added:
“You referred to Deeside Parkway as an exciting opportunity to improve rail access to the Business Park. As you know, the Wrexham Bidston Rail Users' Association have highlighted that rail travel to work in Flintshire is only 1 per cent, less than half the overall Welsh average, that many employees have to use their car to access employment and those who can’t may not realise their employment potential, and that 20 per cent of interviews and job offers at the Deeside Industrial Park are declined because of transport difficulties — and that happened, in fact, to my own oldest son.”
“There’s also, as I know from correspondence you’ve received that I’ve been copied on from local residents, a belief or a call for the need for a crawler lane, and good signage at the start of the red route, and I wonder whether you can confirm whether those will be accommodated or will be considered? There’s also a call in certain quarters that, even with the ‘Red Route’, theA494/A55 interchange has still been listed by the Automobile Association as one of the worst in the UK, and that some action will be required there—not to increase the lanes, but to have better egress from the main highway.”