Madam,

John Watt of Dyffryn Ardudwy is entitled to his view on the Llanbedr bypass (A bypass will be good for people currently gridlocked) but at least let’s get the facts right.

I live on the main road in Llanbedr so observe the traffic daily. Traffic congestion occurs in the village for no more than about 20 days during the peak summer holiday season when vehicles are delayed for around 15 minutes for periods of around an hour at a time, due almost invariably to parked vehicles.

Gwynedd Council has been “offered” five suitable parking areas in the village, together with plans for parking bays in front of the shops, pedestrian walkways and speed cameras.

Together these would eliminate both the real and the perceived problems, but Gwynedd Council has dismissed these suggestions as they would mean that a bypass isn’t needed! Residents will know that Gwynedd Council has been trying for many years to force a bypass onto the village but they did not have the money to do it.

They have now found a way, by producing a deeply flawed and biased report, to get the Welsh Assembly Government (or rather the taxpayer) to pay for the bypass by calling it access improvements to the airfield.

As to the village businesses, yes locals will continue to sup-port them but the loss of the estimated 25 per cent of turnover which comes from passing trade may push many of them from “just managing” to “not managing”. Once closed, village shops, pubs and other small businesses never return.

The projected construction cost of this unnecessary road was £11m in 2015. It will undoubtedly be more as it is likely that a large concrete flyover will be needed to cross the Afon Artro flood plain. Just think what we could do with that money – Memorial Hospital in Blaenau Ffestiniog, leisure centre in Harlech, flood defences to protect the infrastructure at Fairbourne and elsewhere along the coast, improved social care for the elderly and vulnerable?

According to the Gwynedd Council report this £11m bypass will result in a time saving of 49 seconds (yes, seconds!) per journey and will see a large increase in road-related personal injuries. Is this what we really want?

Yours etc,

Robin Ward, Llanbedr.

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