Fears Llanbedr relief road costs could ‘wipe out’ funds for other regional north Wales transport projects raised

Concerns that a Gwynedd relief road could wipe out funds from other north Wales transport projects have been raised.

Currently, no funding source has been identified for delivery of the long awaited Llanbedr low speed relief road which is expected to cost more than £40 million,

The total Regional Transport Fund budget for North Wales however for 2026/7 is only £28m, a meeting of the The North Wales Corporate Joint Committee (CJC) Strategic Transport Sub-Committee heard on Monday.

The committee has called on the Welsh Government to attend its next meeting to discuss the matter.

Members had been discussing the “Llanbedr Position Statement” as developed by Ambition North Wales and shared with the Welsh Government.

An update was being given by senior transport officer Adam Graham.

He told the meeting that the Welsh Government, at the request of the Deputy Minister for Transport, Mark Hooper MS, had recently set up a task and finish group with the aim of “identifying a suitable, possible solution for funding improvements for Llanbedr”.

The Welsh Government had also been talking to various organisations and funding bodies, including the CJC and Ambition North Wales.

His report stated the most important source of funding for local transport schemes was the Regional Transport Fund, with the CJC acting as the organisation prioritising schemes funded from the pot.

The Llanbedr transport improvements were considered “an important scheme in the region”, one of a few specifically named in the RTP.

“In the RTDP (regional transport delivery plan) it was listed as a ‘high priority scheme’. Development work was funded through RTF in 2026/7.

The seaside village of Llanbedr has around 650 residents and is on the A496 between Barmouth and Harlech.

It has faced traffic problems for decades, with the village often becoming gridlocked, particularly during the holiday season.

Plans for a £14m bypass were given the go-ahead in March, 2020 but were scrapped in a November, 2021 roads review. A “low-speed” road plan to relieve pressure on the village centre was later proposed.

The village route was narrow, and had a listed stone bridge over the Afon Artro creating a pinch point on the A496, the report stated.

On-road parking reduced the width of the road “creating conflict” between pedestrians and vehicles, whilst heavy seasonal tourism traffic caused “significant traffic delays”.

Traffic along Mochras Road to Shell Island camp-site also rose from around 150 vehicles per day in November to 2,000 during peak times.

There was also”inadequate active travel provision” with discontinuous footways on the A496 and Mochras Road and “no safe provision for cyclists”, despite the National Cycle Network Route 8 passing through.

It was also highlighted how the road gave access to the nearby Llanbedr Airfield

The UK Space Agency “saw the Llanbedr site as one of four potential horizontal launch sites in the UK, and the only one in Wales” it stated,

It was considered to have “potential to become a strategic national asset” within the multi-million pound aerospace sector, whilst “the drones sector was “becoming increasingly important”.

A briefing note outlined Phase 1, of the low speed relief road expected in 2026-30, could cost £40m, Phase 2, for in-village traffic and environmental improvements, due in 2030, would add £4m.

Phase 3 Additional Active Travel improvements including the A496 to Harlech and Mochras Road connections, due in 2031-33, were estimated at £8M. Additional costs included £1.8M car park improvements at Llanbedr train station.

The report noted: “The cost of the relief road alone is £40 million. The total RTF budget for North Wales for 2026/7 is c.£28m, we have been advised by Welsh Government to assume a flat budget (with no inflation related increase) for future years.

“If a large portion of RTF allocation is used for the construction of a new highway project, we would not be delivering on the sustainable transport aspirations of our RTP.

“This means that the Llanbedr Transport Improvement scheme cannot be delivered through the Regional Transport Fund alone.

“However, RTF may be an important source of match funding that could be used for development work or delivering some of the active travel or environmental improvements.”

Cllr Ifor Glyn Lloyd said: “Everyone has got a road that they want in their area, but in life it is often not what you want but what you need, in this area, they kind of need it.

“It won’t be one pot funding for this, it will be a suite of funding pots. It is an absolute shocker there in the summer. Cost benefit analysis does not work in every area, we have to think outside the box.”

Chair, Cllr David A Bithell stated: “I don’t think anyone disputes the fact it is needed.

“My concern, as chair, is that if we want some bigger, larger regional schemes to progress, does it come out of the Regional Transport Fund, or does it come from somewhere else?

“Otherwise you would not have enough to go across the whole of North Wales.

“What I suggest really is to start a conversation with the Welsh Government. They have started the conversation about Llanbedr, so can I push back to the Welsh Government, invite them to the next meeting to say how they are going to fund the larger schemes without impacting on our Regional Transport Plan. I think that would be a fair challenge.”

Cllr Mike Priestley added: “We have such a small pot and we have so many projects across six north Wales authorities, such a large scheme could completely wipe out the budget.

“If there is support from the Welsh Government, let’s get them around the table to see how we can move this forward.”

Cllr Glyn Banks added: “It simply can’t be funded just out of the RTF it is not practical it will wipe it out for years to come.”

By Dale Spridgeon – BBC Local Democracy Reporting Service