The Wardman Wire

During the winter of 2006-007 I lived in Wales for 5 months. Just.

To be exact, 200m on the Welsh side in the village of Llanymynech, in Powys - while I was working in Shropshire.

Llanymynech sits on the A483 a few miles from both the Shropshire town of Oswestry and Welshpool - next door to a village called Pant (I kid you not). Llanymynech means “Church of the Monks” in English. The A483 is one of three major routes between North and South Wales.

It has 3 pubs, a community store run by an ex-IT Contractor, a famous Golf Club (Ian Woosnam learnt to play there) on top of the hill from which there are amazing views of the Severn Valley.

And 12,500 vehicles a day (2001 figure) travelling down the road. And no bypass. Since I lived next to the A483, I knew more about the 12,500 vehicles than about anything else - especially at 7.00am in the morning.

The problem is that this is one bypass which has been mooted, examined, considered, cancelled, delayed, thrown into the long grass, relisted, repromised, reconsidered, residelined … you get the picture … since before 1960.

In fact it has the distinction of being one of the Top 10 longest delayed bypasses in the country (according to a table I saw in a national newspaper).

The Border Crossing

I want to look at why this bypass keeps being delayed, and it has everything to do with King Offa and his Dyke.

The bypass was most recently confirmed in 2001. As you can see it is part of the legendary (word chosen with care) 1998 10-year Transport Strategy.

16 August 2001

A483 PANT- LLANYMYNECH BYPASS TO GO AHEAD

Minister for Transport John Spellar and Sue Essex, Minister for Environment in the National Assembly for Wales, today confirmed the go-ahead for the design of the Llanymynech Bypass as part of the Government’’s targeted programme of improvements to the national trunk road network in England.

and

The Government’’s targeted programme of improvements was announced in A New Deal for Trunk Roads in England published on 31 July 1998 (DETR Press Notice 661). In the Ten-Year Plan for Transport, launched last year, Ministers provided investment for this and any further schemes that might be identified. Work has started on fourteen of the schemes in the TPI.

Funding was joint between the Welsh Assembly Government, and the Department of Transport.

The Border Problem

And what happened? It was strangled before birth, AGAIN, a few years later - in 2006:

The A483 Pant to Llanymynech Bypass Scheme was considered by the West Midlands Regional Transport Board as part of the Regional Prioritisation in 2006. This is where the Region considers the relative priority of major schemes in the region. They advised that this scheme was a low priority due to its low cost benefit score and the modest contributions it was thought to make towards economic development and housing in the Region.

Following this decision, we completed a detailed review of the scheme to assess whether its cost could be reduced whilst maintaining a substantial proportion of its benefits. This study concluded that possible smaller scale solutions along this route would still offer poor value for money.

Why?

The scheme covers both Pant and Llanymynech, and is 92% in England (6km vs 0.5km), but the benefit would mainly be for traffic flow in Wales.

And so the “low cost benefit score and the modest contributions it was thought to make towards economic development and housing in the West Midlands Region” did not - in my opinion - take account of the benefit to most of Wales.

And we should not forget the somewhat vicious national reception from the Green Lobby that greeted the 10 Year Transport Plan when it came out.

So … what next?

First of all, the need for a bypass is a no-brainer.

There are two problems - the first is how do we get regions to take proper account of economic benefit outside their boundaries.

The second involves reminding the Green Lobby of their traditional slogan, and persuading them to stop insisting on global rules preventing them thinking locally when it is appropriate.

How do it?

On this occasion, I offer no answers. I have not got the foggiest idea how to solve this, short of incorporating Wales into the West Midlands or vice-versa. And I cannot imagine that getting off the ground.

But I see a certain irony in a loss on a community level for Llanymynech and Pant, and a national level for Wales; and that is a loss occurring due to an organisation that may only make its decision based on regional considerations in England.

Tags: llanymynech, pant, bypass, ian woosnam