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£15 million spent on 'road to nowhere'
24 Aug 2009More than £15 million was spent on a road project that is no longer going ahead, it emerged today.
Long-standing plans for the toll road to ease congestion on the M4 near Newport were dropped by the Assembly Government last month because of the spiralling cost.
Deputy First Minister Ieuan Wyn Jones announced the scrapping of the project stating the bill for the relief road had soared from £340 million to £1 billion.
Now, figures obtained by South Wales East AM William Graham reveal £15.57 million had already been spent on the design development of the route between Magor and Castleton between 1998 and 2008.
But the Assembly Government said the money had not been wasted as much of the work it paid for could be used in the delivery of cheaper, alternative schemes.
The Welsh Conservatives described the decision to abandon the project as limiting the prospects for economic growth in the region.
Mr Graham said: "The proposed M4 relief road was one of two major strategic requirements for the transport network in south east Wales.
"It is clear that even as recently as last year the Assembly Government was committed to its development and was spending millions on turning it into a reality.
"While we accept that major projects such as this inevitably require careful planning over a number of years, £15 million has effectively been wasted by the Assembly Government's decision to abandon it.
"We continue to share the business community's fears that prospects for economic growth will be limited by this strategic bottleneck.
"Plaid Cymru's transport minister needs to explain at what point he decided to pull the plug on the M4 relief road."
A spokesman for the Assembly Government said: "The money spent from 1998 included a considerable amount of work to determine the feasibility of the scheme. Much of this work can now be used in the delivery of alternative schemes along this major route.
"The massive escalation in construction costs for the relief road, from an estimated £340m in 1998 to approximately a billion pounds today, has made this scheme unviable.
"However we will be implementing a series of practical improvements along this main corridor to ensure that businesses and individuals using this route will benefit from improved traffic flow at considerably less cost."
Reader views (3)
you were conned and so was everybody else and have been and will be forever and ever.
- Govhater, poole, 24/08/2009 17:47
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Good old Plaid and Welsh Labour! Why do they feel thewy can waste to money of Welsh taxpayers?
- Matt, Telford, UK, 24/08/2009 17:00
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Why is it that costs have escalated so much? This is a relatively straight forward project (no major viaducts and tunnels) and over flat marsh land. I have travelled extensively to Spain, Germany, Korea, France and there are many potentially less busy toll roads (and relatively cheap) that have been constructed over more difficult terrain than this.
On top of this Wales has pretty much the lowest motorways per capita in the the UK. The UK as a whole now has the lowest length of motorway per capita - Ireland has now overtaken us with their ambitious program of construction over the past decade despite some of the highest motoring taxes.
- Mark, london, 24/08/2009 14:32
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