6. Debate on the M4 Corridor around Newport

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:23 pm on 25 June 2019.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Ken Skates Ken Skates Labour 5:23, 25 June 2019

Thank you, Llywydd. I am very grateful for everyone's contributions to this debate today, and I'm pleased to note that there is one important fact that we're all in agreement on and that is, of course, that doing nothing cannot be an option. There have been many, many valuable contributions during the course of this debate, and a number of Members have offered up some creative ideas that I will ensure are considered by the commission.

This is a decision, not about going back to square one, Llywydd, it's about a rapid piece of work by an expert commission that will bring forward practical proposals to resolve some of the issues that are faced by the residents of Newport in 2019 and 2020, not many years from now when a road might eventually have been constructed and opened for traffic. I can assure Members that we are grasping the can right now and we will crush it far earlier than the black route would've dealt with it. I can also agree with Members, as Lynne Neagle has just said, that this is a problem that affects an entire region. Of course, it is felt most intensely in Newport, but all Members, regardless of the constituencies or the regions that they represent, should acknowledge that this is a matter of national significance and, therefore, they should not seek to play off different parts of Wales against one another. On that, I am in full agreement.

I'd like to turn to a number of points that were raised. First of all, the question of the BCR and the black route. Yes, the benefit-cost ratio of the black route was favourable, especially in relation to the much derided blue route. However, the cost element was judged to be just too high, especially against a backdrop of austerity and the lack of a CSR, and, of course, the need to deliver vitally important social infrastructure, including hospitals, schools and houses that could have been sacrificed had the black route gone ahead.

On the issue of the 50 mph speed limits along not just the M4 but other trunk roads in Wales, of course, this is to reduce the poison that is being emitted and is being inhaled by human beings. This is a measure that is proven to work. Nitrogen dioxide levels must be reduced—