Replacing the Llannerch Bridge

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:37 pm on 28 February 2023.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:37, 28 February 2023

Llywydd, I thank Gareth Davies for those further questions. I agree with him—it's certainly not a matter of political contention that the needs of those local residents need to be attended to. The resilient roads fund, Llywydd, normally only takes applications from pre-existing schemes, but in this case, with the bridge having been destroyed by natural causes, an exception has been made so that a bid can be made to that fund. And the bid, as the Member said, has now been received. It looks for some hundreds of thousands of pounds in the next financial year in order to do the necessary preparation work, because while the proposal, as I understand it, is essentially for a like-for-like replacement, with some additional active travel components, even a like-for-like bridge will require design work, and there will need to be modelling, given that it was flooding that caused the destruction of the bridge, and it's possible that some modest land acquisition will be needed to take it forward. Those are the components of work that Denbighshire County Council look to complete in the next financial year. Now, I have to just say to the Member that there are a large number of bids, as you would expect, for that fund, and officials are having to assess all the bids that come in, in the fairest possible way, and then will look to see whether it is possible to provide the funding that is being looked for next year, so that that necessary preparatory work can be completed and residents in the Member's constituency can look forward to a positive plan for the bridge to be replaced.