Clwyd West Assembly Member Darren Millar has this afternoon called for a Statement from the Minister responsible for transport on the A55 in light of the traffic mayhem roadworks in Llanddulas are currently causing.
Darren, who is concerned that poor management of the roadworks on the Kneeshaw Lupton bridge at Llanddulas, which are due to last five weeks, is causing serious damage to the reputation of North Wales as a tourism destination and will undermine the local economy, raised the matter in today’s Business Statement.
Speaking in the Chamber, he said: .
“The Trefnydd will be aware that there have been many complaints coming in to Assembly Members from across the North Wales region because of significant roadworks that are taking place in the Llanddulas area.
“Now, I appreciate that these roadworks are necessary in terms of restoring safety to the bridge in Llanddulas, but the organisation of those roadworks, without any appropriate diversions in place to encourage motorists to take alternative routes, is causing absolute mayhem in local communities and towns throughout my constituency, including Abergele, Old Colwyn and Colwyn Bay. Children have not been able to get to school on time, people have not able to get to work on time, and tourists are having a very poor visitor experience of North Wales as a result of chaos; I'm very concerned that it's damaging the reputation of north Wales and our economy.
“We need a statement on what the Welsh Government is going to do to make sure that it plans these things better in the future so that we don't have the sort of disruption that we've been experiencing.”
The Minister for Finance and Trefnydd, Rebecca Evans, told Darren she will “ask Welsh Government officials to investigate the situation with a view to providing some advice as to how we can best avoid that kind of situation in future”.
Darren added:
“While I’m grateful for the promise to look at this for the future, this will bring no comfort for those facing eight mile delays of an hour and more while these works are underway.”