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5 News Waters: Llandeilo bypass ‘pork barrel politics’ A BUDGET commitment to


a £50m bypass for Llandeilo was criticised by Llanelli AM Lee Waters this week in the Senedd. Mr Waters said the commitment to the bypass, which has been a topic of


discussion for politicians for around half a century, was symptomatic of a need for politicians to take a longer-term view. This discussion took place shortly


after it was revealed that Carmarthen East and Dinefwr had the lowest predicted


spend on major infrastructure projects for 2016-17 of any Welsh constituency. Speaking during a discussion on the


budget, Mr Waters welcomed moves to implement Labour manifesto pledges, and acknowledged that because Labour do not hold a majority a budget, it could only be passed with cross-party backing. While he praised Plaid Cymru for


‘constructive contributions’, Mr Waters made a number of pointed remarks about how the negotiations had been conducted. “It is not my preference that we make


annual deals like this, but if that is to be the way, then inevitably we are going to be tempted towards the lowest common denominator,” he remarked. “I think there is a real challenge in


this Assembly – the first elected in the aftermath of the Future Generations Act – to take a longer term view.” The Llanelli AM then made a


series of thinly veiled remarks about Carmarthen East and Dinefwr AM Adam Price’s role in getting approval for the Llandeilo bypass. “I would hate to see us go the way


Footage from a dashcam video: Showing the extent of the town’s congestion problem


of other democracies, most notably the American political system where we descend towards pork barrel politics,” he said. “It is a mark of the American budget system that hardly a budget is passed without a museum, a bridge, or a bypass being awarded in the name of the chair of various committees.” The mention of the bypass appeared


the Labour benches. It is not currently thought that there are any plans to name the Llandeilo bypass after Adam Price. However, Mr Waters proceeded to stretch the realms of hyperbole even further. “Much as I know people in his own


party believe Adam Price to be the future prophet, I would hate to see statues to the Mab Darogan littering the countryside of Carmarthen East,” he joked, before returning to his issues with the bypass. “The one bit of the budget I am


struggling with: When it comes to the spending priorities we make the figures I have mentioned for the manifesto priorities compare to £50m for a bypass on top of £24m for roads and £15m for local transport network – two thirds of which is anticipated for highway projects. “We have this cognitive dissonance


we have discussed in this chamber before between accepting that our commitments to planning for the long term and taking into account carbon emissions. Those do have policy and spending implications that we need to build into our thinking and not simply revert to the practices of the past and not simply to revert to projects to win support for political parties to show that they have exerted influence,” he added. The market town of Llandeilo (pop.


1,800) has consistently recorded NO2 pollution levels among the highest in the county. The idea of a bypass for the town was


to be the cause of much hilarity from first raised in Parliament in 1970 by the


then-Labour MP Gwynoro Jones. Since then, the town’s problems with traffic have been well-documented. For some time, local politicians of all stripes ‘went to see Aunty Edwina’ about the need for a bypass, as Llandeilo County Councillor Edward Thomas memorably put it. The route for the A483 bypass was


decided in 2007 by Ms Hart’s predecessor, Dr Brian Gibbons (Lab). At the start of the Fourth Assembly


in 2011, the Welsh Labour Government announced it was ‘currently developing the proposals at Llandeilo as part of our commitment to improve journey time, reliability and safety on the north-south corridor’. In May 2013, Edwina Hart


announced that work would commence on the bypass within three years. This was partly attributed to cross-party lobbying from local politicians, including then- Council Leader Kevin Madge (Lab). Speaking in the Senedd the day


after Mr Waters’ remarks, Adam Price accused critics of ‘a rather sneering tone of metropolitan provincialism attacking my party for at least trying to get some concession, some investment in the regions and constituencies we represent’. He pointedly called on Finance


Minister Mark Drakeford to equalise infrastructure funding across Wales ‘so it is not left to me and my colleagues, year in year out, to fight for the bloody scraps at the bottom of anyone’s pork barrel’.


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