Wylfa Newydd axe also meant no third crossing

FM VOWS TO LOOK AT OTHER WAYS TO BOOST CONNECTIONS

FUTURE options for improving connections over the Menai Strait will be examined, Mark Drakeford has pledged. However a third crossing remains off the table thanks to the loss of Wylfa Newydd nuclear power station, said the First Minister.

Last month, the Welsh Government sent shockwaves across North Wales with its decision to axe a planned new bridge linking Anglesey and Gwynedd. The scheme, which had gone through a near 20-year planning process, was dropped at the eleventh hour as part of Cardiff’s controversial Road’s Review.

Of the 16 road schemes reviewed in North Wales, 15 were stopped or scrapped.

Ynys MÔN MS Rhun ap Iorwerth has since continued to press for alternatives to a third Menai bridge and has offered ideas to the North Wales Transport Commission, led by Lord Burns.

In January, Lee Waters, deputy minister for climate change, asked the commission to pay particular attention to the resilience of the Menai crossings in light of the prolonged closure of Menai Suspension Bridge.

However, Mr Drakeford said the rationale for a third crossing had “fundamentally changed” since it was green-lighted by then-first Minister Carwyn Jones in 2018.

At the time, he was Minister for Finance and was heavily involved in the discussions for Wylfa Newydd (Wylfa B). Hitachi placed the nuclear scheme on hold the following year after failing to reach a funding deal with the UK Government.

Speaking in the Senedd, Mr Drakeford said: “I remember everything that we discussed at that time with the company responsible for the Wylfa B project - whether it was possible to draw funding in for a third crossing, because there would be far more traffic flowing to Anglesey and off Anglesey. I also recall the discussions with the National Grid.

“The original suggestion from the National Grid was to create a tunnel under the strait. We were discussing whether it was possible to use that funding to help with the cost of a bridge. So, the context has fundamentally changed, because everything that was on the table with Wylfa B isn’t there now.”

In 2019, Wales’ then-economy Minister Ken Skates admitted the business case justifying a new bridge over the Menai Strait was “difficult” in light of Hitachi getting cold feet.

The scheme was not taken off the agenda completely, but he said the original premise was based on expected traffic increases following the construction of the £12bn nuclear plant. Spiralling costs also put the project in doubt.

Mr ap Iorwerth said the issue now was not so much about a third bridge as it was about resilience.

When the closed for months last suspension bridge more than three autumn, Anglesey was “one storm, one accident, one event away from being totally isolated”, he said.

To reduce the chance of Anglesey being cut off, he has made two proposals to the transport commission – a dual-carriageway on the A55 Britannia Bridge, and a walkway or cycle route on the bridge’s lower deck. Similar ideas were considered previously by Welsh Government planners were rejected in favour of a new bridge following public consultations.

Mr ap Iorwerth noted that the final choice for the route of the bridge took it across the most environmentally sensitive part of the Menai Strait – a key reason why it was rejected by the Roads Review.

The Plaid MS said a smaller, scaled-down scheme would have less environmental impact and, according to the review, would be more cost-effective.

He said: “We’re not talking about a special case across the Menai; we just want it to be like the rest of the A55.

“I want the First Minister to look again at the original needs for the crossing, and how to deliver them: the need to improve safety, opportunities for active travel, the economic boost that comes from having a more resilient crossing for delivering on the free port, for example.”

Mr ap Iorwerth has written to Lord Burns’ transport commission to outline his ideas and to make the case for new investment.

The First Minister said Cardiff would be “open to whatever Lord Burns recommends”.

But he warned: “We want to see options for a crossing of the Menai in a way that helps us in our effort to create a shift in the way in which people currently travel.”

An interim report by the transport commission, published in January, focused on the need to reduce car travel and boost public transport in North Wales. A final report is due this summer.