Is Carwyn 'Dealing with the Devil'?

Carywn & Cameron's Plan for the Gwent Levels?

The real problem with painting one of your political opponents as the 'devil incarnate' is that there could well be a situation in the future, where you have to do a deal with the devil. Then along comes the potential of further transport funding for Wales, if Labour spend it in areas to suit the Tories in London.

It is fair to say that a 50% cut in our capital spend, does somewhat limit Carwyn's options in terms of transport spending, so what options does he have? Well, he has been forwarded (not given as it is ours, you know!) an additional £250 million as part of the UK Government additional spend, and there is also the question of what to do with the Severn toll. With the Humber tolls being halved by Cameron, the pressure is on to do something with the Severn toll, but there is no way that Cameron will help out, unless he gets what he wants from additional spend. So here is a theory for you: -

Enough cash is cobbled together between Cardiff and London to re-launch the M4 relief road, using a combination of WG capital transport spend, additional cash, UK cash and further tolling to pay for it. The Tories would be delighted with this, as it could incorporate private finance by paying back through tolling and build a very big road. Labour would spin it by claiming that this was great for the Welsh economy etc as a huge transport investment creating new jobs and improving our infrastructure.

So what are the drawbacks? Well for starters, the whole cost of the full relief road has been porjected as £1 billion; an absolutely massive outlay for a small length of road. Secondly, it would rip through several SSSI sites and wreck any spurious claim that Labour had any green credentials and finally, it would move the congestion a few miles west, to the east of Cardiff, creating further demand for more road building to complete the Cardiff ring road (priced at £150 million no less than 11 years ago, so you can add a little to that). The actual scheme would also not necessarily create huge mumbers of Welsh jobs, as many of the subcontrctors and materials would be supplied form across the border.

From my sources within the industry, I am convinced that there is a potential deal going down here between Labour and the Tories. If a deal is good for Wales then I have no issue with this. However, such a scheme would be an environmental nightmare that would just perpetuate further huge road schemes, when there are so many other areas where very limited capital spend is required. Plaid's Ieuan Wyn Jones was the first Welsh Transport Minister to spend more than 50% of his budge on sustainable/public transport and knocked on the head the full relief road scheme, proposing a cheaper and more sustainable solution. It will be interesting to see if Labour in Wales try to seek a Welsh solution, or a dated UK solution that creates far more problems than it solves. Let's see which way Carwyn jumps, and how he explains his 'demonic dealings' if he does work with you know who.