CRITICAL INCIDENT: Welsh Ambulance Service issues 999 plea as heatwave demand soars

The Welsh Ambulance Service has declared a critical incident as it struggles to cope with a surge in 999 calls during the recent hot weather.

The declaration was made at noon on Friday, 26 June, after one of the busiest sustained periods the service has faced this year.

At the point it was declared, a significant number of 999 calls were still waiting for an ambulance — including patients with serious and life-threatening conditions.

The service is now urging the public to call 999 only in a genuine, life-threatening emergency over the coming days.

Call volumes this week have jumped 31% compared with the same period a fortnight ago, with Thursday more than 50% higher than normal.

In this week alone, the service has taken around 400 extra emergency 999 calls a day.

The pressure comes alongside increased demand across the wider NHS in Wales during the current spell of hot weather.

Judith Bryce, the service’s assistant director of operations, said declaring a critical incident allowed teams to focus resources on the most serious and life-threatening emergencies.

She said people contacting the service with less serious conditions were likely to face longer waits.

“In some cases, patients may be clinically assessed and advised to seek alternative care, rather than an ambulance being dispatched,” she said.

“We are asking the public to support us during this time by only calling 999 in a genuine, life-threatening emergency.”

Anyone who is unwell or has a minor injury is being asked to use the NHS 111 Wales website, which can direct people to the right care.

The service said that although temperatures are expected to fall over the coming days, demand was likely to stay high.

It said it would keep all available measures in place to return to normal service as quickly and safely as possible.

People are also being urged to take simple steps in the heat — staying hydrated, avoiding the hottest part of the day, and checking in on vulnerable neighbours, friends and family.

The service thanked the public for their patience and its staff for their dedication during what it called an exceptionally challenging period.

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GOWER: Campsites could open without planning permission as new rules slip past council protections

Campsites could start appearing on parts of Gower without planning permission, after a change in the law slipped past the protections the council has relied on for nearly half a century.

The Welsh Government has introduced a new right that lets landowners use their land as a recreational campsite without applying for planning permission, within limits.

Across most of Wales, that allows camping for up to 60 days a year. In protected landscapes such as the Gower National Landscape, the cap is lower, at 28 days.

The change took effect on 1 June, and councillors will be told about its impact at a Cabinet meeting on Thursday.

The catch for the council is that the new right falls outside its existing protections for the area.

Since 1979, an Article 4 Direction covering the Gower Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty has meant that camping and most caravanning needs a full planning application, rather than being allowed automatically.

But the new right, known as Class BA, is not covered by that 1979 direction. It means that, subject to the rules, recreational camping can now go ahead on Gower without the council signing it off first.

There are limits on where it can happen. Camping is excluded from sites of special scientific interest, special conservation areas, flood zones, scheduled monuments, listed building sites and land within 100 metres of someone’s home, among others.

Landowners must also apply to the council beforehand each year for a decision on toilet and wastewater facilities, waste disposal and how vehicles will reach the site.

A council report says those restrictions mean fewer sites will qualify than under the old, broader camping rules.

Officers are not recommending an immediate response. Instead, they want to monitor the impact over the next two years before deciding whether a new Article 4 Direction is needed.

The report, by development manager Ian Davies, says bringing in a new direction would need significant resources and a strong evidence base, balancing support for tourism against protecting the landscape.

It warns that acting without that evidence could leave the council open to legal challenge, and could see Welsh ministers step in and block any new direction.

Monitoring would track landscape and traffic impacts, pressure on utilities and any effect on residents, measured through the number of prior-approval applications and enforcement complaints.

If the evidence later shows a new direction is justified, a further report would go back to Cabinet.

Cabinet meets on Thursday, 25 June, when members are asked to note the changes and approve the monitoring plan.

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FREE SCHOOL MEALS: £15m to extend support to more Swansea Bay secondary pupils from September

More secondary school pupils across Swansea Bay and Carmarthenshire are set to qualify for free school meals, under a £15m Welsh Government investment confirmed today.

The money will begin removing the strict income limit that currently shuts many families out, even when they are on Universal Credit.

At present, a secondary pupil only qualifies for free school meals if their family receives Universal Credit and earns less than £7,400 a year, excluding benefits.

The new funding starts the work of scrapping that cap, so that any secondary-age child in a household on Universal Credit can qualify, regardless of household income.

The change will be rolled out from September, starting with pupils in Years 7 and 8, whose parents will be able to apply for the new scheme.

The £15m is split into £10m of capital funding — to upgrade school kitchens and dining areas — and £5m to introduce and run the expanded scheme.

It forms part of the Welsh Government’s supplementary budget for 2026-27, due to be published on 23 June.

The move builds on the rollout of free school meals to all primary school children in Wales, which was delivered under the 2021 to 2024 co-operation agreement between the then Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru.

Education Minister Anna Brychan said the funding marked the first step in a wider commitment to extend the meals to more secondary pupils.

“This funding marks the first step in our commitment to extend free school meals to more secondary pupils, ensuring that support reaches families who need it most,” she said.

“By starting to invest, we are laying the foundations for a fair and sustainable expansion that will make a real difference in pupils’ daily lives.”

She said the policy was about removing barriers to learning, adding that access to nutritious food improved concentration, attainment and health.

“Building on the success of universal primary free school meals, we will ensure that as children move into secondary education those who need it most will continue to receive the support they need to thrive,” she said.

First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth said extending eligibility was an important step in tackling child poverty and reducing inequality across Wales.

“Starting this work is a key aspect of our 100 Day Plan and beyond — taking practical action by putting money back into families’ pockets and ensuring every young person has the opportunity to succeed, regardless of their background,” he said.

The expansion comes against a backdrop of stubbornly high child poverty in the region, with around one in four children in Swansea estimated to be growing up in poverty.

The Welsh Government said it was working with partners to deliver the scheme “at pace”, with further details promised shortly.

For families across the region, the practical question will be how and when to apply — with the first applications, for Years 7 and 8, expected to open in the autumn term.

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BUILDING SAFETY: New protections could spare Swansea cladding leaseholders from bills they never should have faced

Swansea leaseholders left with crippling bills for fire-safety defects they did not cause could finally be protected, under new Welsh Government proposals.

Ministers have launched a consultation on how to put the Building Safety (Wales) Act 2026 into practice — the law meant to draw a line under the cladding scandal that has trapped residents for years.

For people living in some of Swansea’s best-known waterfront blocks, the stakes could hardly be higher.

Owners at the Marina and SA1 Waterfront towers have spent years trapped in what one group called a “property prison” — unable to sell flats that mortgage lenders will not touch, while service charges and insurance premiums have soared.

At South Quay in SA1, residents in the three Carillion-built towers were hit with repair bills running to hundreds of thousands of pounds — more than £335,000 between them — after surveys found cladding that did not meet fire-safety standards, doubling their service charges.

Nearby, leaseholders at Meridian Tower — Wales’ tallest residential building, also built by the now-collapsed Carillion — faced a £5m repair bill, while owners at the Bellway-built Altamar block on King’s Road have fought for years over flammable cladding and structural defects.

Many of the towers were built by firms that have since gone bust or moved on, leaving leaseholders facing the bill for failures that were never their fault.

The proposed regulations are designed to stop that happening.

At their heart is a simple principle: that leaseholders should not pay to fix safety defects they did not cause, especially where the landlord or developer is responsible.

Under the plans, a residential property tribunal would be able to make “remediation orders” forcing a landlord or management company to fix dangerous defects — or “remediation contribution orders” making developers and others pay towards the cost.

The proposals would also cap or scrap the service charges leaseholders can be billed for safety work, with the strongest protections for cladding removal and for those on lower-value leases.

Wealthier landlords — those worth more than £2m per building — would not be able to pass remediation costs on to leaseholders at all.

The rules would apply to residential buildings of at least 11 metres, or five storeys and above — the height that has defined the cladding crisis since the Grenfell Tower fire.

Cabinet Minister for Local Government, Housing and Planning Siân Gwenllian said no leaseholder in Wales should pay for failures they did not cause.

“No leaseholder in Wales should pay for building safety failures they did not cause, and those failures should be rectified as soon as possible,” she said.

“This consultation is a crucial step in making sure the Building Safety (Wales) Act 2026 delivers real protection for the people it was designed to serve.”

She said the timing carried weight, coming as the country marked the ninth anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire, in which 72 people died.

“We have a duty to turn this legislation into lasting change — and this Welsh Government is determined to work with partners to make that happen as quickly as possible,” she said.

The cladding scandal has been one of the longest-running housing stories in Swansea, with residents repeatedly forced to fight for action.

Last year, 200 residents packed a public meeting to confront one of the UK’s biggest property management firms over the costs and conditions they faced.

Campaigners had earlier demanded action over bills of tens of thousands of pounds each on flats they could not sell.

The Welsh Government has also run a building safety programme, offering developers loans to carry out repairs, though residents have long argued that progress has been too slow.

The consultation is open to residents, leaseholders, building owners and others until 7 September 2026, with details on how to respond on the Welsh Government website.

For the leaseholders who have spent years in limbo, the question now is whether the protections on paper will finally translate into homes they can live in — and sell — without fear.

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HOMEBUYING SHAKE-UP: UK Government unveils biggest reforms in decades — but will Wales follow suit?

Buying a home is set for its biggest shake-up in decades, under UK Government plans to make the process faster, cheaper and less likely to fall through.

But for would-be buyers across Wales, a key question hangs over the announcement: how much of it will actually apply here?

The reforms, unveiled by the UK Government, are aimed at the slow and stressful business of buying and selling a home, which ministers say currently takes around 120 days on average.

Sellers and estate agents would have to provide key information up front in a “sales pack” at the point of listing — setting out a property’s condition, any leasehold costs and its chain status — so buyers know what they are dealing with before making an offer.

Contracts would also become binding earlier in the process, to stop buyers and sellers walking away months in without good reason, a major cause of the collapsed deals that cost time and money.

A new code of practice would raise standards for estate agents, with mandatory qualifications proposed for the sector, and digital “property logbooks” would store a home’s key documents in one place.

The UK Government says one in three sales currently falls through, costing sellers around £400m a year, and that the changes could cut buying times by about four weeks and save first-time buyers an average of £650.

Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens said thousands of people in Wales would benefit from a system she described as too difficult and complex.

“This government’s changes will save working people and families valuable time and money when they are buying their new home,” she said.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said getting the keys to your own home was one of the biggest moments in anyone’s life, but that the current system “turns it into a battle, leaving people in limbo.”

TV property expert Phil Spencer, the Move iQ founder best known for Location, Location, Location, also welcomed the plans.

“It can be slow, stressful and uncertain, with too many transactions falling through after months of time, effort and expense,” he said.

“Anything that helps buyers and sellers move with greater confidence and fewer obstacles is to be applauded.”

The catch for Welsh readers is that much of this sits in devolved territory — so the headline figures, and several of the measures, do not automatically cross the border.

Housing policy is devolved to the Senedd, and Wales already regulates its own estate and letting agents through Rent Smart Wales, set up under the Housing (Wales) Act 2014.

That means decisions on sales packs, agent qualifications and a code of practice in Wales would be for the Welsh Government, not Westminster, to take.

Some of the plumbing is reserved, however. Land registration is handled UK-wide by HM Land Registry, so reforms there would apply in Wales as in England.

The money is different too. The savings the UK Government quotes are based on costs in England, and Wales has its own property tax — Land Transaction Tax — collected by the Welsh Revenue Authority rather than stamp duty.

Asked whether it would mirror the reforms, the Welsh Government stopped short of committing to the English model.

“We look forward to engaging with the UK Government on the consultation and proposed legislation,” a Welsh Government spokesperson said.

“We will seek to ensure any changes are implemented effectively in Wales and that Welsh citizens benefit from a homebuying system that truly works for them.”

The Welsh Government added that it already backs a number of schemes intended to make buying a home more affordable — including a council loan scheme for first-time buyers — and that it is reviewing them.

In practice, that leaves buyers in Swansea, Neath Port Talbot and Carmarthenshire watching a major reform take shape — and waiting to see which parts of it the Senedd chooses to adopt.

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SWANSEA: Council leader rules out suing new Welsh Government over city-centre offices deal — as a revived WDA could hold the key

Construction of the office building — known as Block B, the first phase of the new public sector hub being built as the council’s new home at the former St David’s site — is due to step up within weeks, with work starting on site in July and completion targeted for early 2028.

But a key question still hangs over it: who, beyond the council itself, will fill it.

The deal that was signed — then left in limbo

The council and the previous Labour-led Welsh Government exchanged letters of intent before the Senedd election to bring Welsh Government staff into the new hub.

The proposal centred on relocating staff from the government’s offices near junction 47 of the M4 at Penllergaer — where average daily attendance was running at just 10% in early 2025 — into the city centre, with the council potentially taking on the Penllergaer building in return.

Then the election came, Plaid Cymru took power, and the new administration said it would review its office estate before committing to anything.

That left the council waiting to find out whether the deal would survive the change of government.

‘It would be ill-advised’

Pressed at a scrutiny panel this week on whether the council could hold the new government to the letter of intent, leader Rob Stewart was blunt about the idea of legal action.

He said it would be “ill-advised” for the council’s first dealing with the new administration to be taking it to court — particularly when the two sides had yet to even meet.

Stewart said he was due to meet Adam Price — the new government’s economy minister, who holds the enterprise and energy brief — in due course, in both his role as council leader and as deputy leader of the Welsh Local Government Association, where he speaks on the economy and energy. He hoped to open “productive discussions” with Cardiff.

He argued the new government was reasonably taking time to review its position, but stressed the letter of intent still stood.

Notably, he pointed out that the officials advising on the technical detail were the same under both administrations — so he hoped the advice given to the previous government would be “consistent” with what the new ministers were now told.

The WDA twist

The more intriguing possibility raised at the meeting was that the new government’s own plans could end up helping fill the disputed building.

Plaid has spoken of wanting to see “some form of WDA” — a revived version of the Welsh Development Agency, the economic body abolished in 2006.

There is a neat irony in that. The Penllergaer offices at the heart of the proposed swap were originally built for the WDA, and were never fully occupied after the agency was wound up.

Stewart said he had always believed such functions should be regionally based, and that he would press the case for a revived WDA — or at least part of it — to be located in Swansea, ideally in the city centre, where he argued it would have more economic impact than an out-of-town site.

As economy minister, Adam Price would be central to any such decision.

Why it matters

For Swansea, the stakes are straightforward: hundreds of public sector workers in the city centre would mean daily footfall for shops, cafés and businesses at a time when the centre is being remade around them.

The council’s own move into the hub is already locked in, driven by its planned exit from the ageing seafront Civic Centre, which secured a £20m UK Government funding boost for its own redevelopment earlier this year.

What remains unresolved is how much more of the new building will be brought to life — and whether a deal struck under one government survives under another.

A meeting between the council leader and the new economy minister is expected to be the next step.

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MOBILE PHONES: Welsh Government to crack down on classroom phone use as 8 in 10 school staff back tougher rules

Education Minister Anna Brychan says she “fully supports” headteachers who want to restrict phones across the whole school site, as new research reveals the scale of teacher frustration.

Mobile phones in Swansea, Neath Port Talbot and Carmarthenshire classrooms face a fresh clampdown, after the Welsh Government confirmed it will issue new statutory guidance on how schools handle them during the school day.

The move comes as a survey of the education workforce found more than eight in 10 staff want ministers to go further and bring in statutory restrictions on pupils using phones.

Anna Brychan, the Plaid Cymru Cabinet Minister for Education and the Welsh Language, said she had “listened to the calls for stronger clarity” on the issue.

The guidance will set out clear national expectations for how phones are used within the school day. It will be evaluated over the coming school year, with the option to toughen it further if needed.

Ms Brychan, who represents Caerdydd Penarth in the Senedd, went further in backing schools that want to act now.

“I fully support — and strongly encourage — headteachers to introduce clear and robust restrictions on mobile phone use during the school day, up to and including a full restriction across the school site,” she said.

She added that some children would always need exceptions, for medical reasons for example.

The announcement lands the day after the UK Government unveiled plans to block under-16s from social media apps, a proposal that has already sparked heated debate among parents across the area.

The statutory guidance was shaped by a survey of teachers, senior leaders and support staff carried out earlier this year. In total, 410 people responded from across Wales, including 53 from Swansea, 11 from Carmarthenshire and five from Neath Port Talbot.

The findings paint a picture of schools already cracking down, but doing so in wildly different ways.

Two-thirds of those who replied (66.3%) said their school had a formal written phone policy. The most common approach was to allow phones on site but ban their use during the school day, reported by just under half of respondents.

But enforcement was patchy. While 55.7% said their policy was applied very or mostly consistently, the rest admitted it was only somewhat consistent, or worse.

Staff overwhelmingly backed tighter rules. More than eight in 10 (82%) said the Welsh Government should bring in statutory restrictions, rather than leave decisions to individual schools.

Many said the same thing in their own words: that a single national rule would end the confusion and arguments caused by every school doing something different.

“If everyone has the same policy then kids can’t complain,” one respondent said. “Parents and pupils would understand where they stand.”

Teachers reported real benefits from existing restrictions. Around three-quarters (74.6%) said their approach had cut distraction in lessons, while a majority pointed to better behaviour, less bullying and improved pupil wellbeing.

The picture was more mixed on staff workload. Almost one in five (18.5%) said managing phones had actually made their jobs harder, through rule-related conflict and the admin of collecting and storing devices.

The biggest headache was getting pupils on side. More than half (54.1%) said limited support from students was a challenge when putting their approach into practice, and a similar number cited inconsistent enforcement.

Researchers stressed the survey was open to anyone in the education workforce who wanted to take part, so the results are not a statistically representative snapshot of every teacher in Wales.

Responsibility for phone rules currently sits with individual schools and governing bodies, with headteachers free to restrict or ban devices under their behaviour policies.

That is the system ministers now want to wrap tighter national expectations around, stopping short of the outright Wales-wide ban the First Minister ruled out last month.

The debate has been building locally for months, with a packed public meeting in Swansea hearing parents’ fears about social media, and the city’s MP calling an emergency meeting on the issue.

The new guidance is expected to be in place for schools ahead of the next academic year.

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FUNDED CHILDCARE: Swansea families set to benefit as Welsh Government pumps £55m into expansion

Hundreds more two-year-olds across Wales will get funded childcare under a new cash injection — with Swansea already among the first areas to offer it.

Hundreds more families across Wales are in line for funded childcare after the Welsh Government announced a £55 million investment.

The money will speed up the rollout of 12.5 hours of funded childcare a week for all two-year-olds, delivered through councils including in Swansea.

Swansea was the second area in Wales to offer the scheme to every two-year-old, after Merthyr Tydfil, with Newport following soon after.

Wrexham has now joined that list, becoming the first North Wales authority to reach the milestone.

The £55m forms part of the Welsh Government’s First Supplementary Budget for 2026-27.

It includes £10m of capital funding to expand and improve childcare settings, aimed at boosting the quality and number of places available.

Ministers say the cash will help providers manage rising demand and stay afloat financially, while also supporting Welsh-medium childcare.

That ties into the long-standing target of reaching one million Welsh speakers by 2050.

The investment is a step towards the government’s wider promise of 20 hours of funded care a week for every child aged nine months to four years old.

At full rollout, ministers claim that offer will be the most generous anywhere in the UK.

Sioned Williams, the Plaid Cymru Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Minister for Social Justice and Equality, who holds the childcare brief, said the move showed the government was “accelerating our commitments to the families of Wales.”

“Childcare costs in Wales are the highest in the UK and I am determined to help families all over Wales, while also supporting children’s development,” she said.

She added that she was “particularly pleased” Wrexham was now expanding its offer, and that the government would keep working with councils to roll it out everywhere.

Research by Coram Family and Childcare last year found Wales had the highest holiday childcare costs of the British nations, lending weight to her claim.

A new expert steering group will advise on the next stages of the rollout, focusing on training enough staff, digital applications and improving access for families.

The funding lands just days after the policy behind it caused chaos in the Senedd.

Reform UK tabled a debate on 11 June demanding the new Plaid government publish full costings and a timetable for its childcare offer within its first 100 days.

But the motion was amended to point out that Reform’s own election manifesto contained no childcare commitments — and in a tangle that drew mockery, 11 Reform members ended up voting for the amended motion attacking their own party.

Reform has claimed the full childcare offer could cost between £388m and £710m a year, well above the roughly £400m figure Plaid has cited.

The latest announcement also marks a change of guard, with funded childcare milestones celebrated earlier this year by the then Labour government’s children’s minister, Dawn Bowden.

Welsh Labour lost power to Plaid Cymru at May’s Senedd election and now sits in opposition.

The party gave the funding a cautious welcome.

Lynne Neagle, Welsh Labour’s spokesperson for children, education and lifelong learning, welcomed the news that Wrexham would offer free childcare to all two-year-olds, and said she hoped more councils would follow.

She said the previous Welsh Labour government had worked to expand Flying Start provision across Wales, and that it was “great to see the government commit to our manifesto pledge and continue this work.”

But she said questions remained. “We await further information on the government’s supplementary budget, but as it stands there are still many unanswered questions around the funding commitments,” she said.

Flying Start is the Welsh Government’s flagship early-years programme, offering childcare, parenting support and health visiting to families with young children.

Funded childcare for two-year-olds is being expanded in phases, with the latest cash intended to widen access ahead of the next academic year.

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MORRISTON: £1m heart surgery boost — after team kept ageing machines going with spare parts

Patients undergoing major heart surgery in Swansea Bay are set to benefit from a £1m investment in state-of-the-art equipment at Morriston Hospital — replacing ageing machines the cardiac team had been keeping alive with parts stripped from one of their own.

The hospital’s perfusion department has received four new heart and lung machines, funded by the Welsh Government.

Also known as cardiopulmonary bypass pumps, the machines temporarily take over the function of the heart and lungs during open-heart surgery — allowing surgeons to perform complex, life-saving procedures safely.

They are operated by specialist perfusionists, who circulate and oxygenate the blood, remove carbon dioxide, regulate temperature and manage clotting medications — while monitoring vital signs including blood gases and electrolytes to keep patients stable throughout surgery.

The technology is essential for procedures such as coronary artery bypass grafts and heart valve replacements, when the heart must be temporarily stopped.

One of the new cardiopulmonary bypass machines — touchscreen controls and real-time monitoring replace kit more than 15 years old (Image: Swansea Bay University Health Board)

The new machines replace equipment more than 15 years old, which had become increasingly costly and difficult to maintain — to the point where the team had been cannibalising one machine to keep the others running.

Senior clinical perfusionist Ian Bennett said: “Our previous machines had served us well, but they were showing obvious signs of age.

“Maintenance costs were rising and replacement parts were becoming difficult to source. We’ve even had to use one machine for spare parts to keep the others running.

“With two cardiac theatres operating, having limited equipment created additional challenges. These new machines give us improved reliability and resilience, which is vital for such a critical service.

“It is also great the Welsh Government thought well enough of us to make this investment in Swansea Bay.”

The new technology offers enhanced monitoring, more sensitive software and touchscreen interfaces — enabling more accurate, real-time data collection during procedures, reducing the need for manual input and helping to minimise the risk of human error.

“It has been a learning curve, but the advantages are clear,” Mr Bennett added. “We now have greater control and visibility during procedures, with more precise monitoring that supports both patient care and ongoing quality improvement.”

Morriston is a major cardiac centre serving Swansea Bay and a large area of mid and west Wales, delivering a wide range of routine, complex and emergency procedures.

Three of the replaced machines will be sold at auction, with the funds returned to the health board — while the fourth will support academic research.

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Plaid rules out Newport M4 relief road as minister promises ‘balanced package’ of road, rail and bus

The Plaid Cymru-led Welsh Government has ruled out building a relief road around Newport to ease congestion on the M4 — months after its leader campaigned on backing a new road for the route.

The M4 around Newport is used daily by drivers from across south Wales, including those travelling east from Swansea, Neath Port Talbot and Carmarthenshire.

Opened in 1967, the Brynglas Tunnels at Newport were originally designed to handle 30,000 vehicles a day. They now regularly carry over 75,000, making this stretch one of the most famous congestion hotspots in the UK.

In a statement to the Senedd, Deputy Minister for Transport Mark Hooper described the corridor as “one of the most constrained and heavily used transport corridors in Wales”.

He said it continued to “operate beyond capacity, particularly at peak times”, with long-standing problems of congestion, resilience and reliability.

The minister was blunt about the most contentious option.

“To be clear, this government does not believe the Black Route is a credible option,” he said — referring to the proposed six-lane motorway bypass south of Newport, scrapped by the previous Labour government in 2019 at an estimated £1.6bn.

Instead, he announced “a short, focused programme of work to explore realistic options across road, rail and bus interventions”, drawing on existing analysis rather than commissioning a new review.

“The answer is not another external review that kicks the can down the road one more time,” he said.

The work would include accelerating public transport alternatives, targeted measures to improve traffic flow on the existing road network, and better integration between local and national transport systems.

The announcement puts Plaid Cymru’s own position in the spotlight.

During the election campaign, party leader and now First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth told a leaders’ debate that he supported building a new road to tackle congestion at the Brynglas Tunnels.

“We believe that a response is needed to improve traffic on the M4 around the Brynglas Tunnels,” he said at the time. “Currently we don’t have a plan. What a Plaid Cymru government would do is put that plan together.”

He pointed to a cheaper alternative rather than the Black Route itself, and argued that investment in rail alone would not resolve the congestion. The M4 did not feature in Plaid’s election manifesto.

Proposals to relieve congestion around Newport date back decades, with a relief road south of the city first floated in the 1990s. Plans firmed up under Welsh Government backing for the so-called “Black Route” — a 14-mile, six-lane motorway south of Newport, including a new bridge over the River Usk.

After an 83-day public inquiry, the entire scheme was scrapped in 2019 by then-First Minister Mark Drakeford, who said it was too costly, at an estimated £1.6bn, and too damaging to the environment.

A subsequent expert commission instead recommended a “network of alternatives”, focused on new rail stations and public transport rather than new motorway.

The debate has rumbled on since. Last year, renewed calls for a Newport bypass were rejected by the Senedd, after a Conservative motion failed to win support from Labour, Plaid Cymru or the Liberal Democrats.

Closer to home, the Welsh Government said last year it would look again at M4 junction improvements around Swansea after pressure in the Senedd.

The minister said he would report back to members on the M4 work “in Plenary early in the autumn term”.

The statement also covered transport problems in north Wales, including repeated closures of the 200-year-old Menai Suspension Bridge between Ynys Môn and the mainland.

The minister said the bridge had shut several times in recent weeks after drivers ignored a 7.5 tonne weight limit, forcing precautionary safety inspections.

He said works to stabilise and refurbish the bridge were due to be completed in spring 2027, and that the government would now “start looking at detailed options for a third Menai crossing”.

He acknowledged the disruption had caused “deep frustration, and increasing anger” among those affected.

Related stories from Swansea Bay News

Renewed calls for Newport M4 bypass rejected by Senedd
A Conservative motion for a bypass failed to win cross-party support.

Welsh Government to look again at Swansea M4 junction improvements
Ministers agreed to revisit congestion relief at the Swansea end of the M4.

Commission proposes rail stations as alternative to M4 bypass
The expert panel recommended a network of public transport alternatives.

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