Start as you mean to go on...
In December 2018 Welsh Labour elected Mark Drakeford as its
new Leader and First Minister. His platform included a commitment to develop a new
Transport Strategy which would “give meaning to our commitments
under the Environment Act to cut carbon emissions by 80%, and under the Future
Generations Act to plan for the long-term”.
He appointed me, a critic of Welsh economic and transport policy, as a Deputy Minister in the economy and transport department work alongside the existing and more orthodox Minister Ken Skates. I was tasked with responsibility for reforming the approach to active travel, and to taking forward a commitment ‘to encourage a presumption of 20mph speed limits in residential areas’.
An early test of intent for the Government was a long-awaited decision on whether to go ahead with a new section of motorway to divert a congestion bottleneck on the M4 between Cardiff and Newport in the south east of Wales. The fourteen mile, six lane motorway through a site of scientific special interest, had increased cost from an estimated £700 Million ($1.37 Billion AUD) before the election to at least £1.6 Billion ($3.13 Billion AUD) - which would have risen to significantly more than £2 Billion given the inflation that emerged.
The previous administration had been fully behind the new road and had made an election commitment to build a new section of the M4. But in June 2019 Mark Drakeford had to make the final decision after being presented with the report and recommendations of a planning inspector after a public inquiry. The inspector said to go ahead, Mark Drakeford took a different view on grounds of affordability and environmental impact. This was a high-profile decision which caused considerable controversy and presented a strong challenge to the prevailing ‘predict and provide’ approach to road building.
Mark Drakeford reflected later on the decision:
“The easy decision would have been to say go ahead. The powerful voices in Wales were lined up in support of it. My decision, having spent many, many days reading and thinking about it, was that it was not in the long-term interests of Wales… if you’re in the business of progressive politics, and if you’re in the business of using the opportunity that comes your way, your job is to stick to the things that you believe will make the greatest difference today, of course, but especially for the generations ahead of us.”
He stopped short of applying this thinking to other road
schemes at this point and instead established an independent transport commission led by the
former Permanent Secretary of the UK Treasury, Lord Terry Burns, to look at
alternative ways to reduce congestion on the M4 motorway.
The Burns report set out a ‘comprehensive and coordinated’ public transport system for the area which would provide a ‘network of alternatives’ to give people and businesses new transport options. “Even a moderate reduction in the number of cars travelling on the M4 could result in a significant improvement to the travel flow. The changes we are suggesting would generate considerable extra capacity in our region’s transport system. This shift to public and active transport would have many wider benefits beyond relieving congestion, including cutting air pollution, improving public health, and providing better access to jobs and services for everyone” Lord Burns concluded.
The final report recommendations were accompanied by the establishment of a delivery unit made up of the Welsh Government and the local authorities in the area, overseen by an independent delivery board charged with chasing progress. A series of projects have now been brought forward for funding, many of which are rail improvements that need the support of the UK Government.
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