St Athan academy road links plan thrown into doubt

Rhrodri makes promises he can't keep without using our money to line Metrix consortium pockets!!

Feb 16 2007 Peter Collins, South Wales Echo
First Minister Rhodri Morgan has signalled the Assembly is moving away from plans to upgrade road links with the Cardiff International Airport.

It had been believed that the new 5,500-job military academy in the Vale of Glamorgan would lead to huge improvements in the transport network.

But at a meeting with business leaders, Mr Morgan said the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) would not be able to raise private funding to pay for the scheme. He said it was also unlikely that a private company would be able to charge a toll for a road from the M4 to the airport.

Plans to trunk the A48 from Culverhouse Cross to Sycamore Cross and parts of three roads leading to the airport, were scrapped following public opposition, although WAG was understood to be keen to press ahead with improved road links from the M4 to the airport.

But at the meeting with business leaders, Mr Morgan said: 'You may not get a dual carriageway from the M4. What company would want to have a toll on that road?'

He also used the example of Bristol Airport which has poor road links and said that it did not seem to have harmed its development.

Villagers in the Vale were concerned at talk about trunking the road from Culverhouse Cross and at the plans to build a new road from the M4 directly to the airport.

A spokesman for the Metrix consortium, the group behind the successful St Athan bid, said they had no public comment to make on Mr Morgan's views. But the consortium has embarked on detailed negotiations with WAG and others on the infrastructure implications of the academy development

In an exclusive interview with the Echo this week, Mike Hayle, chief executive of Metrix, said continued public support was vital. He also said: 'It is also important that the Assembly Government shows that it will deliver what it said it would deliver.'

A major development blueprint which will be used as a guide for the academy plans concluded that 'there is sufficient highway capacity within the local road infrastructure to absorb the impact of the development'. The conclusion was reached by a transport group which included Assembly Government representatives and Metrix.