Roadblock protest as bypass off
RESIDENTS of a Snowdonia village will block a major road this weekend in anger over cancelled plans to build a new bypass in the area.
The community of Llanbedr has been blighted by traffic chaos for many years.
Bottleneck situations often form in the village, which is divided in half by the A496.
The coastal road is busy throughout the year and acts as a link between Penrhyndeudraeth and Barmouth, and the communities in between.
At 11am today, the road will be blocked as part of a “peaceful” protest which will see residents walk along the road in tandem. It will take place along a 1.5-mile stretch of road through Llanbedr and is expected to hold up traffic for about an hour.
It comes after the Welsh Government unveiled its Roads Review of 55 roads projects in Wales.
The planned schemes were frozen in June 2021 and an early casualty was the £14m Llanbedr bypass.
The proposed bypass had got the go-ahead in March 2020, and had the scheme not been axed it would have been completed this year.
Its cancellation fuelled grievances in a village that is regularly gridlocked in summer and contends with traffic “mayhem” all year round. The narrow bridge over Afon Artro is often the epicentre of the bottlenecks formed in the village. It will be crossed as part of today’s protest.
The march is designed to “show
disappointment’ in the approach taken by the Welsh Government.
Organisers say it has “been 60-plus years since we could walk and cycle safely” through the village. Local politicians are also expected to attend the protest today.
Cllr Annwen Hughes said: “Firstly
I would like to thank the Pobl group for arranging this protest, which is simply to show the Welsh Government how frustrated we are as a community here in Llanbedr and also along the Ardudwy corridor that the improvements to the access road to the airfield (or as it is known locally
the bypass) has once again been shelved.
“We depend on tourists and the gridlock in the village is not helping matters at all, and the health and safety of residents is being put at risk, and the fumes from the traffic is not helping the environment.”