Labour Senedd members including First Minister Mark Drakeford have voted for a motion criticising the Welsh Government's own Roads Review, which recommended the mass cancellation of upcoming roads projects.
Members including the First Minister and climate change minister Julie James voted for an amended Conservative motion which criticised a "lack of engagement" with the public and elected representatives.
As one MS after another stood up to detail the devastating impact of the cancelled projects on their constituents, Ms James defended the scheme and reiterated that public transport investment was still to come - but when it came to voting, Labour acknowledged the review's shortcomings.
Introducing the motion, Conservative MS Natasha Asghar launched a searing criticism of the review, saying the way the projects' cancellation was announced was "nothing short of a shambles... a statement about the roads review conclusion that didn't actually outline what roads have been given the go-ahead and which have been the chop."
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She criticised deputy minister Lee Waters for choosing to "unveil which projects had been spared the axe while many of us were already in the Chamber, sitting around frantically going through the document that we'd only just received" and said Wednesday's debate was a chance to "give [the review] the scrutiny that it rightfully deserves."
What followed was an hour in which Senedd members spoke about the huge impact the review will have on their constituencies. Sam Rowlands, regional Tory MS for north Wales, noted 15 of the 16 north Wales projects were scrapped in some form, which he said was "absolutely staggering."
He said: "Amongst the scrapped projects are upgrades to the A483 Wrexham bypass, the A494 Lôn Fawr, Ruthin and Corwen roads, the A483 Halton roundabout, the A55 at junctions 15 to 16 and 32 to 33, as well as the third Menai crossing. The Welsh Labour Government will again tell us today that this road building ban is vital to protect the environment and reduce carbon emissions.
"But what they again fail to understand is that, for many of my residents in north Wales, private road transport is the only practical transport option, with around 84 per cent of people in Wales relying on car or motorbike to go about their ordinary daily lives, and with these vehicles getting cleaner and greener with a rapid shift away from the internal combustion engine."
He said the Roads Review would have "been received with much more warmth" if the north had better public transport, something which ministers insist is on the way.
Plaid's Rhun ap Iorwerth said the cancellation of the third Menai crossing wouldn't deliver "basic resilience" for his Ynys Môn constituents. He called for dualling the A55 at the Brittania bridge, "ensuring proper flow of traffic, not more traffic," to bring it in line with the rest of the road.
And his Plaid colleague Mabon ap Gwynfor spoke about the Llanbedr bypass - cancelled before the other projects when the Roads Review panel gave an early verdict. He said: "The residents and the community and communities nearby had been waiting for over 50 years for a resolution to their problems, just to be disappointed at the very last moment."
He continued, saying the rationale of preventing 'induced demand', was "valid, but not in all cases, and certainly not in the case of Llanbedr," citing a narrow bridge on the A496 through the village which brings the village "to a stop" whenever a lorry, tractor or van crosses it.
"The result of this is long traffic jams of vehicles waiting patiently to cross the bridge, letting out their poisonous emissions," he added. "A number of ambulances have failed to reach patients in time because of this issue, and have had to ask for the air ambulance.
"There are local businesses that have left or are considering leaving because of the valuable time wasted unloading stock because of queuing. The parents of young children or people with mobility issues choose to drive hundreds of yards only in order to go to the nursery school or the shop, because the bridge is too dangerous to cross on foot."
The motion, introduced by Natasha Asghar on behalf of Darren Millar, called on the Senedd to recognise the lack of engagement by the panel and to recognise the panel's recommendations as "[failing] to deliver the transport infrastructure the people of Wales rightfully deserve."
The roads review has come under heavy criticism, with industry bosses saying there is "no alternative" to road investment on the M4 and residents of Llanbedr taking matters into their own hands. But climate minister Julie James insisted the plans were "not a ban on road building," and that the Welsh Government would work with the Burns Commission to invest in public transport to fill the void left by the cancelled roads.
She said: "This is the first root-and-branch review of road building in Wales for generations, and it comes amidst a nature and climate emergency, a cost-of-living crisis, and at a time when the Welsh Government is facing unprecedented financial pressures.... we are taking action here in Wales to actually try to deliver on our net-zero commitments and our wider environmental responsibilities.
"How often have I heard warm words from the Tories in this Chamber on tackling climate change and protecting biodiversity? But, despite those warm words, I cannot recall a single serious or constructive suggestion from the Welsh Conservatives in response to these great challenges of our age."
She raised the example of the Flintshire red route, saying £300m would have been spent to "build a dual carriageway through an ancient woodland during a nature emergency... [increase] carbon emmissions by 423,000 tonnes during a climate emergency, [and]within a decade and a half of its construction levels of congestion would be back to where they are today."
She reaffirmed the Welsh Government's intention instead to "invest sustainably in north Wales," and defended against accusations of a lack of engagement by saying: "This is a technical policy exercise, and not something that any Government would consult on directly.
"The time to engage with the public and stakeholders is at the strategy stage and at the scheme stage, and, of course, we have done and will do as much of that as we possibly can. Indeed, the Burns commission in north Wales is now consulting as part of its work, and once local authorities have produced their new regional transport plans they too will consult on them, and rightly so."
But when voting time arrived, Julie James, along with Labour colleagues including Mark Drakeford and Vaughan Gething, voted for the amended motion - effectively recognising that the Welsh Government failed to engage properly over the review.
The amendment, introduced by Delyth Jewell on behalf of Sian Gwenllian, saw the wording of the third point softened to "refocus the discussion on the need for more investment and for more security for our public transport providers."
The motion was passed by 53 votes to 1, with no abstentions and six not voting (three Labour, one Plaid, one Conservative and the Llwydd Elin Jones). Lee Waters, the minister who has been the public face of the Roads Review, did not vote.
Only Liberal Democrat leader Jane Dodds voted against, saying: "We have to reduce our carbon emissions, enable modal shift and enhance road safety, which will be hardwired into our road schemes. The aim of the review, as I understand it, is to base decisions about roads on a wider range of criteria.
"It is nonsense to say that the roads review means Wales is closed for business. The choice between the economy and the environment is a false binary. We know that the economic effects of climate change will be catastrophic. You cannot plan an economy in the long term without understanding that things need to change, and most innovative businesses actually know that.
"We know that, in many parts of Wales, especially in rural areas like those in Mid and West Wales where I represent, the lack of public transport is a huge problem. But even in our cities, I know that the cost of public transport is also prohibitive.
"I do look forward to the outcome from the pilot of the Fflecsi bus... I want to see free public transport for the under-25s... I do welcome the conclusion of the roads review, not as the end of the debate, but as the start of a much wider one."
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