M4 relief road just one way to get Wales moving in the right direction

Here, Welsh Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Transport and Infrastructure, Sam Rowlands, commits to delivering an M4 relief road

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WE'VE just passed the six-year anniversary of Labour's decision to ditch building the M4 relief road, a disastrous decision that has fundamentally held back the Welsh economy ever since.

The Welsh Labour Government scrapped their M4 relief road project after more than £150m of taxpayers’ money was spent on the proposals.

They compulsory-purchased 38 properties for £24.6m to make way for the relief road and, shockingly, 20 days before the road’s cancellation, the Labour Welsh Government spent £575,000 on another property southwest of Newport. Then, just 13 days before the decision, another house was bought for £462,162. All that money wasted, for nothing.

It's clear the relief road was and is needed - the South East Wales Transport Commission report found the M4 near Newport ranked within the top 50 traffic hotspots in Europe, and was the fourth most congested stretch of urban motorway in the United Kingdom.

The failure to implement this infrastructure project has left motorists and businesses without a crucial solution to manage growing traffic demands. It is painfully clear Labour ministers in Cardiff have no solutions when it comes to alleviating congestion on the M4.

The Welsh Government's decision to scrap the M4 relief road wasted huge amounts of money and was fundamentally an attack on Welsh motorists.

There's no doubt that an M4 relief road would alleviate traffic demands, while boosting our economy and investment into Wales.