London intervention on M4 wrong, says Tory MS
A WELSH Conservative MS has strongly criticised the suggestion that the UK Government should build an M4 relief road despite the project’s rejection by First Minister Mark Drakeford.
In an extract from a book he is writing published on Twitter, David Melding argues that any such move would amount to encroachment on the Welsh Government’s powers under the devolution settlement.
There has been speculation that Boris Johnson might use a new pot of money called the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), meant to replace EU aid money, to build the controversial relief road around Newport.
While it has the support of business groups like the CBI, the road is opposed by environmentalists who say it would destroy the Gwent Levels, a significant waterlands area on the coastal strip near Newport.
Opponents also argue that Brexit and Covid-19 have reduced the need for a relief road and that financing it from the UKSPF would rob poorer parts of Wales of funding they need.
Mr Melding, who will stand down as a regional MS for South Wales Central at next May’s Senedd election, wrote: “Encroachment is a danger in all federal and devolved forms of government..
“The Scottish Government seeking to prevent nuclear submarines using Faslane or the UK Government wanting to build an M4 relief road are classic examples of encroachment.
“Encroachment should not be confused with cooperation or shared governance on matters of mutual interest.
“Rather it is the attempt to alter, without consent, the territorial distribution of power.
“Even if the UK Government were to build the relief road at no cost, opportunity or actual, to the Welsh Government – a highly unlikely eventuality – it would still undermine political accountability and jeopardise the current devolution settlement.
“The Union would be weakened and an alarm signal sent to Scotland, although perversely not one entirely unwelcome to the SNP.”
Mr Melding says that the UK Government’s reasoning for imposing the relief road is that arterial transport networks are essential for the efficient operation of an internal market.
But, he adds, “if transport today, why not housing tomorrow on such criteria? Is not the efficient movement of labour also essential to the UK’s internal market? Workers need homes, and should not public sector procurement, regional assistance, business and agricultural support be added to the list?
“Paradoxically the Brexit ideology that seems to be driving us down this motorway was once turned on Brussels with accusations that ‘overreach’ was built into the single market.
“Yet the EU Commission operates via member governments and applies a rules-based approach with independent legal arbitration.
“This shared governance model is underpinned by the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. The UK Government seems disinclined to emulate such restraint. So for Wales and Scotland ‘take back control’ may mean ‘let London take the wheel’.”
The MS concludes: “I doubt the M4 relief road will ever be built by the UK Government. Once the implications of speeding off in this direction are realised, the suggestion will be quickly parked.
“Then it will be a matter for the Welsh electorate and the Welsh Government they elect in 2021 to decide.”
A spokesman for the Welsh Conservative group at the Senedd said: “A future Welsh Conservative Government would work with a UK Conservative Government to deliver an M4 relief road and level up Wales along with the rest of the UK – two governments actually working together for the benefit of the people of Wales instead of playing party politics.”
A spokeswoman for the UK Government said: “The UK Internal Market Bill will ensure UK companies can continue to trade unhindered in every part of the UK, protecting the Union whilst safeguarding the devolved administrations’ right to regulate as they do now.
“It also means the UK Government can invest funds in infrastructure such as the M4 relief road, but we will always look to collaborate and work alongside the Welsh Government.”