£1.2bn CITY DEAL VISION REVEALED
ANEW £100m road from the M4 to Cardiff Airport, as well as a series of major park-andride schemes for thousands of vehicles on the Metro rail network, could be backed as part of the £1.2bn City Deal.
The City Deal, which covers the 10 local authorities that make up the Cardiff Capital Region, aims to create 25,000 new jobs over the next 20 years, as well as leveraging in a further £4bn of private sector finance.
Some £734m of the City Deal, which is funded by the Welsh and UK governments as well as £120m of capital borrowings from the authorities themselves, has been ringfenced for the next stage of the integrated Metro transport project with electrification of the core Valley Lines.
Of the remaining £495m, nearly £40m will go towards acquiring the former LG Semicon site and other land at Imperial Park in Newport from the Welsh Government, to support the world’s first compound semiconducter cluster – known as CS Connected – which could create thousands of hi-tech jobs.
The City Deal, which has now set up its programme team at Ty Dysgu in Treforest, will have input from the business and education sectors in assessing projects, with an assessment process that will look for them to have as wide a regional economic impact as possible.
However, the final decision on projects will rest with the City Deal’s regional cabinet, made up of the 10 local authority leaders.
Its chairman Andrew Morgan, leader of Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council, said that to date some £3bn worth of projects have been identified – which will now have to be whittled down.
However, he said that over the next six to nine months, the aim was for some projects to have been given the green light.
Major projects being considered – albeit at what he described as an early stage prior to any evaluation – include a new road, potentially a dual carriageway, from the M4 to Cardiff Airport.
He said as well supporting passenger growth at the Welsh Government-owned airport, it could also boost efforts to bring more investment into the wider St Athan enterprise zone – which has already attracted luxury car manufacturer Aston Martin, but which recently just missed out on securing a huge 1,000job maintenance repair and overhaul investment from the defence arm of US aerospace giant Boeing.
A road from the existing Junction 34 of the M4 at Miskin to the airport was rejected on cost grounds by the Welsh Government a decade ago. And any proposals brought forward could face strong opposition for communities in the Vale of Glamorgan.
Mr Morgan said: “We are looking at potentially – working jointly with Welsh Government and others – a new road to Cardiff Airport from Junction 34 of the M4.
“Realistically, it is the sort of thing you could be looking at if there is a strong business case from the airport of how it is going to develop or the next 10 to 20 years.
“This [assessment] should also be linked to St Athan as a strategic enterprise zone site and how any road could open up a massive amount of land to the south of the airport [currently owned by L&G] for development.
“And if you are putting a single carriageway, or possibly a dual carriageway, to the airport from the same junction [34], then you could
also have a major park-and-ride interface wth a new train station.
“The figure we are looking at [for the new road] is £90m to £100m.”
However, another option (not identified by Mr Morgan) could be for traffic bound for the airport and enterprise zone coming off at Junction 33 of the M4, with a new interchange before Culverhouse Cross for vehicles to then eventually link up with an upgraded Five Miles Lane to the airport.
While again at an early stage, Mr Morgan said a City Deal could also support the funding of three to four major park-and-rides linked to the Metro – including possibly at Junction 34 – on the main commuter lines into Cardiff.
He said: “Linking with the Welsh Government and the current procurement process for the Metro, we are getting a better feel and understanding on what lines are going to be upgraded as part of the core Valley Lines. And on that basis we are looking at where we can put three or four big strategic park-and-rides And we are talking upwards of 3,000 and a minimum of 2,000 vehicles at each site.”
Mr Morgan wouldn’t speculate on where they could be located, but possible contenders include Llanwern, Merthyr, as well as for a new station between Cardiff and Newport at St Mellons.
Despite some logistical challenges in terms of access off the A470, Taffs Well could also have a significant park-and-ride – although a site close to the existing station, and owned by the Welsh Government, has been earmarked for a major depot for trains or trams on the Metro.
However, further north, Treforest could emerge as a preferred parkand-ride location – taking motorists off the A470 at rush hours for commuters to then complete their journeys in and out of Cardiff on more frequent rail services which will come through the Metro and next Wales and Borders rail franchise.
Mr Morgan said that projects that will support housing developments across the region, but particularly those in more northern Valleys communities, as well as a focus on skills, would also feature in City Deal projects.
He said: “Five hundred councillors across south Wales voted for this City Deal and it wasn’t just the 10 leaders. And most councillors make the point that this is not about having shiny projects in your back garden or within your county boundary,
“We want to get more jobs into the Valleys and the [Welsh Government commissioned] Valleys Taskforce wants to get 10,000. That is all great, but the bulk of the jobs growth will be along the M4.
“And we know that, no matter what we do. So it is not about having 2,000 jobs in Cynon Valley, but if the jobs are in Pontypridd, down in Cardiff or say Newport, as long as people can get back and forth with sensible transport and a good Metro system, that is the main thing,
“And it is also about getting more housing in the Valleys where people can come and live. And if they spend more of their money locally, that will also help regeneration.
“But to do all that, we need to make sure that people are skilled-up to do the kind of jobs we need for the region in the first place.”
He said that the Heads of the Valleys road network also needed to be exploited more for the regional economy.
Mr Morgan said: “People talk about the £1bn proposed M4 Relief Road, but when completed the same amount would have gone on the Heads of Valleys, a carriageway which effectively goes from Swansea right the way across south Wales. So we want to maximise on that as well, building on the opportunities it provides, like better links into the Midlands.
However, he said that over 20 years funding for the City Deal – of which the local authorities could pay back £200m in capital and interest – was tiny when compared to the £1bn the DUP has secured for Northern Ireland over the next two years for supporting Theresa May’s minority UK Government.
Mr Morgan said: “We have £10m annually for the first five years, and then £21m to £22m over the next 15. For Northern Ireland it is £1bn over two years. In context it is almost three times the size of our amount and they are having it in a tenth of the time.
“The 22 local authorities in Wales, and in fairness that’s the Conservative authorities too, through the Welsh Local Government Association, all agree if that £1bn is going to Northern Ireland, then the consequential for Wales is £1.7bn. So the WLGA is clear that this amount should be going to the Welsh Government’s budget.
He said that while the Metro could leverage private sector financing, the majority of the £4bn target for the City Deal would come from the remaining £495m – which gives an average leverage per project of 10 times.
On delivery of the City Deal, Mr Morgan said: “Our message over the next four to five years is that we don’t want to get caught up in talking shops that go round and round.
“We need to see brick and mortar and some firm actions, so that people can see City Deal making a real difference.”