Road plan will split counties (From Western Telegraph)

Road plan will split counties

Assembly proposals to change the current trunk road agency boundaries and split both Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire into two, are being strongly resisted by the county councils.

Members of the executive board of Carmarthenshire County Council strongly rejected the proposals when they met last week and, along with Pembrokeshire, Neath, Port Talbot and Swansea, plan to lobby the Assembly with alternative proposals.

The Assembly plan is to divide Wales into three separate regions - north, mid and south - for the management of the trunk road network. But their new mid and south boundary would split Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire from Fishguard to Llandeilo. At the moment Carmarthenshire runs the West Wales Trunk Road Agency with the other agencies based on the old county council areas.

The councils' alternative proposal is a four-way split, retaining the integrity of the present county boundaries. A Pembrokeshire County Council spokesman said that the proposals regarding the current boundaries of trunk road agencies will be discussed at Pembrokeshire County Council's cabinet meeting on Monday. The National Assembly will then be informed of the cabinet's response.

However the council's cabinet member with responsibility for transportation, Councillor Brian Hall, is not in favour of the boundary changes suggested by the Assembly. "Pembrokeshire would be split in two with the northern part of the county in a mid Wales section and the remainder in a southern section," he said.

"This would result in the confusing situation of the highways network in Pembrokeshire being run by three agencies, with the council retaining responsibility for county roads."