4:45pm Friday 24th July 2009
Campaigners fighting for a by-pass for Llandewi Velfrey have been dealt a major blow.
Despite a visit to the dangerous road by Welsh transport minister Ieuan Wyn Jones, the new National Transport Plan says that work won't start on a by-pass until 2014 or later.
“This is a serious blow to our campaign to make Llandewi Velfrey safer,” said local AM Angela Burns.
“Already the by-pass has been slipped down the agenda by six years.
“I have just handed in a petition to the Welsh Assembly calling for the pavement to be made safer and speed limits lowered through the village.
“In the light of fact that the Welsh Assembly seems determined to keep shuffling the village by-pass to the bottom of the agenda, this safety work is now more vital than ever."
Mrs Burns is now pressing transport officials and Mr Jones for a start date for the by-pass.
She told a debate on sustainable transport in the Senedd that while people in west Wales wanted to use trains and buses, they were often left with no alternative but to take cars.
“People in west Wales are being asked to make all these changes in behaviour and lifestyle, and to improve the way that they live to protect the planet and so on, and yet they do not have good buses, or anything approaching a decent rail service," she pointed out.
"All they have left are the roads. Unless the Welsh Assembly is prepared to spend some of the road infrastructure money on the A40, they will be stuck."
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.westerntelegraph.co.uk