Questioning the First Minister this afternoon over the Welsh Government’s North Wales Transport Plan, Welsh Conservative MS for North Wales, Mark Isherwood, asked whether it is “an un-resourced, pre-election sweetener”.
Speaking in today’s meeting of the Welsh Parliament on transport infrastructure in Gwynedd, Mr Isherwood noted that the Welsh Government’s ‘Network North Wales’ Transport Plan, announced last month, has also been described by them as a “vision”, which “is only hoping that something will happen”.
He therefore challenged the First Minister over the Welsh Government’s commitment to the Plan.
He said:
“It is many years since the then Transport Minister, now Transport Secretary, first used the term ‘North Wales Metro’ in response to a question from me.
“The ‘Metro is Go’ Network North Wales Transport Plan, finally published by the Welsh Government last month, included extending the Manchester Airport service to Holyhead in place of Llandudno, and working with Local Authorities to develop plans for Gateway multi-modal interchanges at Bangor and Caernarfon in Gwynedd, and at Holyhead and Wrexham.
“However, although this was presented as a plan, the Welsh Government also described this as a ‘vision’, which is only hoping that something will happen.
“The only specific funding referred to was the £13 Million already committed by the Welsh Government, which contrasts with the £1 Billion funding for the South Wales Metro.
“Further, this should not be conflated with the separate Local authority transport grants for 2025 to 2026 announced by the Welsh Government, which included £4.6 Million for Gwynedd.
“What specific commitment, including funding, are you therefore able to announce now, or would the people of Gwynedd - and North Wales more widely - be right to consider this an un-resourced, pre-election sweetener?”
In her response, the First Minister said “we've just had an announcement of over £450 million to start making up for the shortfall in funding as a result of your previous Government in Westminster.”
Speaking after the meeting, Mr Isherwood said:
“Deliberate deception and dodgy data once again, when the Welsh Government’s own figures show that the previous Conservative UK Government invested over a billion pounds into the Welsh rail network over the last 10 years, three times more than the £445 million announced in the current Labour UK Government’s 2025 Spending Review.”