The town where locals pay the price for abolishing bridge tolls
Gridlocked, polluted and crowded, Chepstow’s been hit hard in the year since the abolition of the Severn Bridge tolls. Nathan Bevan reports
AS part of his tribute to the Welshman who won the Tour de France, Max Boyce last year sang: “And down in city hall, I’ve heard the council say, we’ll change the name of the Severn Bridge, to the Geraint Thomas Way.”
Prophetically, and somewhat ironically, a bike – as well as Thomas’ famed Olympian cycling prowess – is probably the one thing you now need for your daily commute since the bridge’s tolls were abolished on December 17 last year.
That’s particularly true if you live in Chepstow, which has seen a huge spike in traffic travelling both in and out of it since motorists were no longer required to stop and pay to enter Wales via the M48 Severn Bridge and the Second Severn Crossing, now renamed the Prince of Wales bridge.
A financial barrier as much as they were a physical one it seems – at its priciest it cost £6.70 to cross – the tolls’ removal has seen a 16% increase in westbound journeys on the Prince of Wales bridge while the M48 crossing witnessed a spike of around 32%.
Eastbound journeys on the Prince of Wales saw an increase of 8.9%, bringing the average number of crossings a day to almost 40,400.
Moreover a UK Government study earlier this year suggested that more than 24m vehicles every year would use the crossings westbound by 2022, compared with 18m had the tolls had stayed in place.
Already used to congestion and delays, Chepstow was plunged into gridlock chaos after decommissioning work began, its out-of-date road network clogged and unable to cope with sheer amount of traffic.
Taking to social media to vent, some overheated drivers claimed it was taking them two and a half hours to do three miles through the town during morning rush hour.
Shaun Thomas, who’s worked at the same tile outlet on the nearby Bulwark industrial estate for 19 years, is one of those people whose daily journey has become interminable.
“I drive down the A48 from the Forest of Dean to get in each morning and what used to take me 45 minutes is now almost double that because of the traffic,” says the 35-year-old dadof-three.
“It’s got progressively worse over last year in particular. If someone has a bump en route then you’ve no chance of getting round it – you just have to sit there or turn back home.”
And it’s also affecting business, he adds. “I’ve had a few roastings for being late but it’s also putting customers off in some cases. People wanting to pop in after work have no chance of getting here before we close because the traffic’s so silly.
“Personally it would put me off coming to Chepstow to shop altogether.”
Once past the pinchpoint that is the Tesco traffic lights in the middle of town, Shaun then faces a long steep crawl up the residential Hardwick Hill, the town’s busiest drag, to make it to his workplace.
Dotted on either side with wellheeled Georgian properties, it feels ill-suited to cope with the sheer volume of vehicles – many of which are coming from English towns like Lydney – en route to Bristol via the M48 and the old Severn Bridge.
Its narrow pavements can also make it difficult for pedestrians with the slipstream from the constant succession of lorries, buses and cars barrelling past at elbow’s length often rocking them on their feet.
And poor air quality is another big factor and has been for a long time. Indeed it’s regarded as one of the most polluted stretches in the UK.
The World Health Organisation even previously positioned Chepstow above the likes of Birmingham and Bristol on a list of places exceeding the limits for fine-particle pollution levels.
Someone who knows all about this is Tim Melville, coordinator of the Transition Chepstow Transport Group and board member of the Chepstow Air Quality Monitoring Group.
“I lived on Hardwick Hill for over 10 years but moved a long time ago,” says the 55-year old, who’s helped formulate many of the plans to alleviate congestion and air pollution in the area.
“My daughter Martha had asthma that got so bad it kept her in hospital on a couple of occasions.
“She was about six at the time but the amount of pollution from the traffic affected her really badly - so much so that, despite loving the house we had to relocate.”
Upping sticks for a quieter back road a mere 400 yards away, Tim soon found his daughter’s condition improved considerably.
“In fact she’s been fine ever since,” he adds, pointing out that there’s been no improvements made to the road system there for 30 years.
Also the air quality monitors situated at various points along the A48 have seen significant increases in nitrogen dioxide levels since the tolls’ demise.
“The average for NO2 emissions in 2019 has gone up by more than 10% while, in other areas of Wales, it has been going down as combustion engines become cleaner,” says Tim.
“NO2 has gone up by the Chepstow School on Welsh Street by 25% and this could be reduced by more children walking to school and less cars on the road come the morning rush hour.
“We as a group have also been talking about having new commuter buses run from Chepstow to Bristol as well as ‘park and share’-type car pool facilities situated outside of the town.”
But the long-mooted solution of a £100m plus bypass road, bandied around by Gwent County Council as far back as the ’80s and ’90s, is too simplistic an idea, he adds.
If built the road would run through border towns like Sedbury and Beachley, providing a direct link between the A48 to the east of Chepstow and the M48.
“The problem is, though, we’ve not got another 20 years to wait,” says Tim. “Things need to be done now because sitting in queueing traffic as early as 6am and journey times of 90 minutes to go just 15 miles is ludicrous.”
Meanwhile the Welsh Government has awarded £50,000 to Monmouthshire council to look at how to improve transport in and around Chepstow town centre while funding has also been allocated to support road safety improvements and encourage active travel.
But a steep hike in the population of Chepstow and its surrounding areas in recent times - not to mention an increase in house prices - is also contributing to the problem.
Monmouthshire and Newport, the closest local authorities to the Severn bridges, are two of the fastest-growing property markets in the UK - both having experienced recent rises of 14% and 13.7% respectively.
Gwent-based estate agents Moon & Co reported a boost in sales of property ranging from £350,000 to £400,000 while another from Newport remarked about hearing “more Bristol accents than Welsh” when it came to those calling to inquire about viewings, indicating a steady climb in the numbers coming from over the English border in search of cheaper accommodation.
Many have also pointed the finger at property developers on the other side of the England/Wales divide for taking advantage of the tolls’ abolition to build more homes than the local infrastructure can cope with.
“They have been sitting on the land waiting for the tolls to go and now look what’s happening,” says Sue Dutson of Tutshill, the English village just a short walk from Chepstow across its cast iron, Regency-built Old Wye Bridge.
“They say it’s because people need houses but these aren’t affordable homes for local people.”
She’s talking about an application for a new 185 unit housing development on nearby land south of the A48, while more than 1,000 extra homes are also planned for the Chepstow and Severnside areas of Monmouthshire.
In addition a further 1,800 homes earmarked for Lydney can only cause further headaches for those affected.
Indeed, for everyone who’s sick of spending each day bumper-tobumper in grindingly slow traffic, it may already be a bridge too far.