The Dualling of the A465

Part of 3. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 3:15 pm on 29 November 2017.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Nick Ramsay Nick Ramsay Conservative 3:15, 29 November 2017

Cabinet Secretary, no-one would disagree that this is a very challenging engineering project and that it will be a very fine stretch of road when it's complete, but nonetheless there are concerns across Wales and within this Chamber, but certainly locally with local residents I've met, and I think some of their fears would have been confirmed by the recent revelation about the 23 per cent overspend. For a long time now, there have been complaints made to me about Costain, the contractors, operating within a slacker fiscal regulatory environment than local residents would see fit. So, I think if you could revisit this and your arrangements for Costain—. I hear what you say—that they are more liable to bear more of the risk than the Welsh Government is, and that's to be welcomed if that's the case, but currently, certainly in the local area, there are real concerns that there doesn't seem to be the sort of tight hold on the finances of this project and, indeed, on the deadlines for completing the project that we would all like to see. So, if you could review that, that would be very appreciated.