Madam,

I am concerned and very annoyed with the sheer volume of road works that I have found on our Welsh trunk roads during the last week or so whilst travelling the length and breadth of Wales.

First of all at the beginning of the week I made a journey from Aberystwyth to south Wales, which would normally take two and a half hours maximum, via Llanwrda, Llandovery and Brecon, but took me almost four hours because of extremely lengthy road works and multiple stoppages with traffic lights and lengthy traffic queues.

I found the same thing yesterday while travelling again from Aberystwyth to Rhuddlan via Conwy and back via Ruthin, Bala and Machynlleth. However this time I managed to avert a really serious delay and disaster when I reached the roundabout on the A487 south of Machynlleth. The road was well and truly closed and had been since 9.30pm and it was now after midnight. It would remain closed until 6am today.

Fortunately for me I was able to negotiate with a very pleasant and reasonable young man who was working for a contractor preventing traffic going through towards Aberystwyth.

At first he was adamant that he was not going to let me through and the alternative was to go back to Machynlleth, then to Caersws and on to Llanidloes and Llangurig to join the A44 back to Aberystwyth.

That was closed at the beginning of the week at night but only between Lovesgrove and Aberystwyth, but had a relatively easy detour via Capel Dewi or Bow Street, That I could live with. This detour amounted to 59.5 miles, another two hours at least, and on difficult roads and me towing a trailer as well. I was truly astonished that our county council officials could even consider imposing such a ridiculously harsh inconvenience on the public.

As good fortune had it, I lived in the Llyfnant Valley many years ago and knew an alternative route via Glaspwll, which I would not recommend for anyone with a vehicle larger than a car or a 4X4, as it is extremely hazardous and the car could end up in a river quite easily between Glaspwll and Caerhedyn farm, Glandyfi.

Once back on the main road I got home then without further delay, but it was very scary and exhausting.

On my way north yesterday I noted a hive of activity in Talybont where several extremely ugly and totally unbecoming steel structures on the main road, which I assume are solar powered signs, probably to scare the motorist into drastically reducing their speed in the most aggressive fashion. Ugly, ugly, ugly!

The truth may be that it’s the age-old spring madness that comes in almost all departments of government and many other organisations when there is some money left in the kitty at the end of the financial year, and it just has to be spent, no matter what.

Yours etc,

Bob Morris, Primrose Hill, Llanbadarn Fawr.

Have your say on the local issues affecting you - email [email protected] or join in the conversation on our Facebook page