4. What action is the Welsh Government taking to improve the road transport network? OAQ53747

I thank the Member for that. Our national transport finance plan sets out our priorities for the road transport network in Wales. The Minister for Economy and Transport will provide an updated plan in May of this year.

Thank you very much, First Minister. The cost of widening the A465 Heads of the Valleys road between Gilwern and Brynmawr was originally budgeted at £220 million. In November 2017, it was announced that costs had risen by £51 million and that the completion of the project was delayed until the end of this year. We now hear that the cost has increased by another £54 million and that the completion date will be missed again. First Minister, can you now please provide this Assembly with the revised completion date for this project? When will your Government receive the Welsh Audit Office report into the project's commercial position, which was begun last year?

I thank the Member for that question. I want to recognise the seriousness of the issue to which he has pointed and Members will know that the Minister for Economy and Transport's written statement published on 3 April provided the detail that lies behind the issue that the Member has highlighted. So, here was a complex construction scheme where a solution was required to address a particular geographical feature that the company, the contractor, argue was only discoverable once construction had begun. It is a matter of regret to the Welsh Government that the contractor has then incurred substantial overspend and programme delays and the detail of that is set out in the Minister's statement. While we will not now have full completion by the end of this year, the bulk of the work will be completed—the significant bulk of the work will be completed—during 2019 and we expect the remainder of the scheme to be completed in the early part of next year.

One cost-effective way of improving road networks is to find joint investment, and it's possible occasionally. There has been some talk about getting the National Grid to contribute to the cost of a new Menai crossing in order to carry cables as part of the Wylfa Newydd development—a bridge that would allow safe cycling to work to Parc Menai, for example, for the very first time. Now that the Wylfa Newydd proposal has been paused, does the First Minister agree with me that it's important not to lose momentum with the new bridge proposal, and does he agree that there is a very strong case to continue to seek joint investment from the grid by encouraging them to put the current cabling over the Menai on that new bridge as part of the project worth billions of pounds that is happening in other parts of the UK to remove pylons and underground cables in areas of outstanding natural beauty? It would also be a way of removing the pylons that currently run through the middle of the village of Llanfairpwllgwyngyll.

May I thank the Member for the points he makes? I do agree that it is important for us not to lose momentum in the scheme that we have for the third crossing over the Menai straits. I know that the Minister is fully aware of that and we are keen that the pause of Wylfa does not impact the new bridge scheme. It is important to bring other people in, and the National Grid is part of that, but there are other partners that we can also think of. I know the Minister has heard the Member's words this afternoon, and we are working hard to progress the scheme and to put more details together, and, to be clear, we do not wish to lose momentum on such a crucially important scheme for local people.