City council urged to oppose potential M4 junction closures

M4 junctions must stay open under any new plans to tackle congestion around Newport, its council leader has warned.

Cllr Dimitri Batrouni is calling on the council to show “unequivocal opposition” to shutting any motorway junctions, warning closures would worsen traffic issues around the city.

“Such proposals would place an unacceptable burden on residents, businesses and local infrastructure, and must be firmly rejected,” he said.

The new Plaid Cymru Welsh Government is considering various ways of improving motorway traffic flow, after several parties said a relief road should be reconsidered during their Senedd election campaigns earlier this year.

Deputy transport minister Mark Hooper has since confirmed the Plaid government was taking a new stretch of motorway “off the table” but would carry out further analysis of other options.

He is due to report back to the Senedd on those “practical and deliverable alternatives” in the autumn.

In a proposed motion due to be discussed at a full council meeting this week, Cllr Batrouni said he shared a “long-standing position” of various Labour group leaders “in favour of the relief road”.

The Labour-led city council decided to back the project for a new stretch of motorway before it was scrapped by then-First Minister Mark Drakeford in 2019.

Since then, it has expressed support for the public transport-focused alternatives to a relief road that were drawn up by a special transport commission, headed by Lord Terry Burns.

Some of those recommendations – including a series of new railway stations in and around Newport – are expected to be implemented over the next few years, but the recent Senedd election campaign revived talk of a relief road.

The Welsh Conservatives and Reform UK said they would build a new motorway, and Plaid leader Rhun ap Iorwerth later said Newport’s M4 traffic issues required a “roads-based solution”.

While the government carries out its further studies, Cllr Batrouni’s proposed motion calls on the local authority to oppose “any proposal to close M4 junctions, or to pursue any measure that diverts motorway traffic onto Newport’s already congested city streets”.

Councillors are due to debate the issue when they meet next on Tuesday July 21.

Ahead of the meeting, however, Conservative councillor David Fouweather claimed the notice of motion overlooked how his party had consistently supported the relief road project.

“I didn’t see an outcry from Newport Labour when Welsh Labour scrapped the M4 relief road – it’s because of Labour we have heavy traffic congestion in Newport”, he alleged, before claiming the council leader should amend the wording.

“The motion should represent the views of the council as a collective,” added Cllr Fouweather. “There should be no references to political parties.”