“My message to businesses and the wider community is that this Government is committed to reducing congestion and restoring capacity and reliability to this absolutely vital east-west corridor”, Transport Minister Ieuan Wyn Jones said yesterday.
A series of measures were announced by the Assembly Government to reduce demand on the M4 to compensate for the decision to abandon plans for a ‘relief’ road.
And yet today, outline planning permission was granted for a massive new ‘International Business Park’ four junctions along.
A 300 acre site – bigger than the Cribbs Causeway shopping centre in Bristol – will be built in countryside next to Junction 33 of the M4. Creating extra pressure on the M4 at the same time as new measures are announced to try and reduce it a few miles down the road.
It was driven by the old WDA and when that was merged into WAG the liabilities for the site and the commitments were taken into WAG. The economic development side pointed to the ‘need’ for a prestigious business park attracting HQs of major firms. The transport side pointed out the enormous traffic generation potential from a car-centric development on an already congested section of the motorway.
Local Authorities in the valleys fear investment will be sucked away from them, and the Vale of Glamorgan see the risk of repeating the errors plain to see at Culverhouse Cross.
Of course, there have been keen attempts to polish the turd.
A new “airport style regional transport hub” will result in up to 10 bus services an hour running through the site to Cardiff, with links to local railway stations.
Of course Park and Ride linked to a major bus interchange will be of value. But you don’t need a massive business park with some 1,500 car parking spaces to achieve that.
A turd is still a turd.
Wyn Jones’ turd « Disgusted of Llandrindod Wells 10:52 am on 17 July, 2009 Permalink
[...] Valleys Mam Wyn Jones’ turd July 17, 2009, 9:52 am Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: lee waters, M4 relief road, welsh assembly government Green transport wallah and all round good egg Lee Waters offers some vivid, turd-based imagery over at Bevan’s blog. [...]
Dr. Christopher Wood 5:10 pm on 17 July, 2009 Permalink
EDITORS NOTE – Please keep comments fairly brief or I will have to edit them. Sorry to be so draconian, but over-long comments messes up with the style of the blog. Diolch
Well, the issues surrounding adding to the M4 and cutting traffic loads onto the current version of the M4 in Wales will be moot soon if this recession turns into a depression, which is now on the cards given very recent events in the USA.
Who am I: many things, but one of them is American small business co-owner – I’m a Welsh expat living near Washington, DC – I work in protecting innovation, and have drafted or prosecuted over 200 American patent applications, I mix with other small business owners every day, some of them are my clients, others I meet just outside in the ‘parking lot’ having a smoke (I chat, but don’t smoke).
The American small business sector is facing wipe-out, and you better believe this TRUTH: so is the EU/UK/Wales …
The US tax code is facing great change – small businesses (not based on number of employees, but based on the earnings paid to employees and the business owner) will have punitive taxes (8% on top of their regular tax obligation) if the small business doesn’t give full health care to their employees. The cut-off figure I heard was just $250,000 – if this is correct this will cause waves of despair among the American small business community – it is like small business owners are caught in an earthquake that won’t stop – it is causing a crisis of confidence among American small business owners regardless of political party affiliation. Small business owners are in shock.
This will hit just about every small business employing more than a handful of people. It is crazy – but I warned that the Feds will likely change the Federal Tax Code (to pay for promised spending plans) … and Elizabeth Edwards disagreed with me (wife of former Al Gore running mate, John Edwards); BBC Question Time special – I was called on twice – in the American election special broadcast directly from Washington, DC (actually from a studio inside the new Newseum – a 250,000-square-foot museum of news on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC).
I’ve written about this several times: hit the American small business sector – essentially frighten them out of existence and vola, American imports will drop creating a drop in EU/UK/Welsh exports – not just to the USA, but to other nations inside and outside the EU because they will lose their export market to the USA.
America is now teetering on the edge of economic disaster – if American small businesses take a huge tax hit – their job creating powers will not just turn to mush, they will lay off workers, cut their hours, cut salaries, drop contractors, and buy less, and their orders will in turn get hit – it’s going to be a chain reaction and the chain reaction will spread across to the EU/UK/WALES.