Toll removal spells doom for south Wales
PEOPLE seem to think that the removal of the Severn Bridge tolls will bring many new jobs to south Wales. It won’t.
The history of the last 250 years has repeatedly shown what happens when two adjacent regions become more closely linked. If one is both richer and more centrally located, then it will gain at the expense of the other. A recent example is the closure of the large creameries at Carmarthen, Llangadog, Whitland, etc. Now most west Wales milk is processed in England (and some comes back to homes within sight of the farms it left two days and 300 miles before!).
Most of south Wales will then be within the Bristol orbit; distribution jobs will disappear as it will be increasingly serviced from the Bristol side. Retail jobs will go as shoppers flock to Bristol. Newport, Abergavenny, Monmouth and Chepstow will, in effect, become outlying suburbs of Bristol.
There will be other unfortunate results. House prices in Monmouthshire will spiral out of reach for local people (that process is already well under way). Local roads, already congested, will be unable to cope with the extra traffic; journey times will lengthen, and there’ll be more air pollution. More road traffic accidents means more strain on the local hospitals. The Great Western Railway will lose at least 10% of its passenger income through the Severn Tunnel. Rail passengers will be paying some of the great expense of maintaining the bridge, as well as the tunnel.
So overall, while some toll reduction would be welcome, complete removal is not all gain for the motorist, and bad news for everyone else in south Wales.
David Gwyn Watts
Milford Haven