A row has erupted in South Wales after the release of a campaign video by Newport’s Labour MS Jayne Bryant, which was released seven years after the Welsh Labour Government scrapped the M4 Relief Road in 2019.
In the video, Ms Bryant, alongside Newport City Council leader Dimitri Batrouni, questioned Plaid Cymru’s approach to tackling congestion in and around the city, prompting a sharp response from political opponents, says the South Wales Argus.
Councillor William J Routley, deputy group leader of Newport Conservatives, accused Labour of “barefaced attempts to eradicate the past and escape the consequences of your own record” after 27 years of uninterrupted Welsh Labour government.
Cllr Routley said:
“You bear total responsibility for the strategic decline and physical gridlock of our city of Newport. Rather than acting with humility, offering a long-overdue apology, or admitting that your blind support for the central management of the Welsh Government has failed, you continue to double down on an outdated, failing political ideology.”
He highlighted the scrapped £157 million M4 Relief Road as a cornerstone of Labour’s alleged mismanagement, calling it “the final bill for this total failure.”
He also criticised the Welsh Government’s decision to purchase Cardiff Airport for £52 million and subsequent funding totalling £205 million, describing it as another example of “eye-watering waste.”
Another Newport councillor, who asked to remain anonymous, said:
“They got a bloody cheek putting out a campaign video on this. Their party has systematically caused the traffic problems we see in Newport today. Daily queues, backlogged roads and gridlocked lanes on the motorway.
“If the M4 Relief Road had gone ahead we would’ve seen them building the road now with diggers in the ground. Instead, seven years on and it’s worse than ever.”
A Welsh Labour spokesperson said:
“The congestion on the M4 at Newport absolutely needs to be addressed. That’s why in Government we brought forward a whole package of measures and secured a generational investment in rail improvements between Newport and Cardiff.
“As Transport Minister, Ken Skates personally commissioned an assessment by independent experts to review pinch points on the M4 and we committed to take action based on these recommendations to deliver resilience for our road network and make life easier for Welsh people. Now Plaid Cymru have to answer the question in government – will they take forward those recommendations? Or will it be another review?”
(Picture: Mapillary)
