3. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on development works on the A55 in north Wales? OAQ51850

Yes, of course. We're continuing to invest significantly in this strategic route in north Wales. We are spending £40 million to upgrade junctions 15 and 16, another £250 million in the Deeside and Flintshire corridor project, and looking at accelerating the delivery of the third Menai crossing. Of course, the road forms part of The Wales Way—a strategy to promote tourism in Wales—and it's marketed nationally and internationally as the culture corridor.

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. You'll be aware, yesterday, that I had to raise with the First Minister the number of times that the A55 has actually been closed—that's 55—for a total of 2,720 hours. That's over 113 days. That's nearly a third of a year. This is an essential trunk road for businesses, freight and holidaymakers across the north, and they have been let down time and time again. Only yesterday, of course, we had the accident that has sadly seen two people hospitalised. And it's becoming the norm now. On a daily basis, people are expecting, at some stage, there to be major gridlock on these roads. I don't make this as a pun in any way, but I cannot afford, as the Assembly Member for Aberconwy, to take my foot off the pedal in terms of scrutiny on this issue. So, how will you ensure that your proposed upgrades and work associated with the pinchpoint programmes will not lead to further delays, congestion and just absolute misery for visitors coming into north Wales? It's gone on for too long now, Cabinet Secretary, and we really do need to be seeing some improvements.

I don't think anybody in the Chamber would disagree with the assertion that the A55 requires investment and upgrades. I'm pleased that we've been able in recent months to avoid planned daytime closures of the A55. Night-time closures will continue through to September of this year with no daytime planned closures taking place. But I also recognise that there is a need at the same time to upgrade significant parts of the A55 and to implement the short, medium and long-term objectives and recommendations that were identified in the resilience study.

In terms of the 55 closures, the vast majority of those can be attributed to accidents, incidents, breakdowns due to—believe it or not, there is a proportion of breakdowns caused by motorists running out of fuel. But it was also attributed largely to those planned overnight works.

Now, I think that what's essential is that we look at the progress that is going to be made in the coming months, and then judge on the basis of the implementation of the quick wins the success or otherwise of Welsh Government. I can say that, on wireless CCTV, installation is taking place in April; on the incident detection software, we're trialling a system; on the traffic officer coverage, with the extended hours, we're currently recruiting additional traffic officers—likewise, the additional traffic officer unit—and we expect also that by the end of March additional traffic officers will be extending their work right to the Gledrid roundabout of the A483, covering that huge area, the 55 and then down.

I'm pleased to be able to say that we're expecting a launch during April of the roads timetable. We're currently in discussions with data providers. In terms of the free recovery trial that was identified in the resilience study, we're currently reviewing historic incident statistics to see where and when this might provide some benefit. There was also a recommendation for additional mobile units and we now have six mobile signs rented, and those are on order for delivery shortly. We also have taken on a communications manager, which was identified as a crucial role. In terms of performance analysis we expect in April to be able to have completed the procurement effort that will allow that. In terms of the average speed enforcement trial on the Rhuallt Hill, again, we're going to go live with that in April or May of this year, and then, finally, the final short term measure that was recommended concerned vehicle restrictions on slow-moving vehicles. We are currently identifying exactly what definition should be used for slow-moving vehicles. It might take some time. We need to ensure the legal implications are bottomed out before we implement any restrictions on vehicle movement.