The Expert Commission on the M4 Corridor around Newport

Part of 3. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 3:30 pm on 5 June 2019.

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Photo of John Griffiths John Griffiths Labour 3:30, 5 June 2019

Minister, the problems on the M4 around Newport are urgent and pressing, and obviously they do need short-term, medium-term and long-term responses. Personally, I believe that 'predict and provide' has largely been discredited as a model for dealing with these issues, and that's why I very much welcome the decision that Welsh Government has made, because trying to predict traffic growth and then building new roads to accommodate those predictions has been seen to merely result in those new roads filling up with more and more traffic journeys, and that doesn't benefit anyone. So, I do believe we need new thinking, more imagination and that modal shift, together with better traffic management. 

So, in order to achieve that, Minister, we will need some early actions. And I wonder whether, as I raised with the First Minister yesterday, one of those early actions might be consideration of the Magor and Undy walkway proposal for a new train station under the UK Government's new stations fund. And, as you know, the local community group are seeking Welsh Government funding to match that available from Monmouthshire County Council to take forward that application into the next stage of the UK Government process. So, I wonder if you could give any positive indications on that. 

In terms of the commission, Minister, obviously Newport City Council will be required to deliver many of the actions—inevitably, I think—that will be coming forward, so it seems to me appropriate for Newport City Council to have a presence on that commission, and I wonder if you would indicate that that will be case.

Just in terms of some of the calls that I think we've already heard, Minister, we've heard calls from Members in this Chamber for spend from these available moneys right across the length and breadth of Wales, and that's understandable in a way, because, obviously, Members have their own pressing concerns in their own areas, but obviously what we're talking about here is the M4 corridor around Newport. That's where the problems are, and that's where the spend of available moneys must take place. And I wonder if you would agree with that, Minister, and give some reassurance on that front.