Editor,

I cannot let the assertions made by Judy Rose and Graham Tottle about the Llanbedr Bypass go unchallenged (Letters, Cambrian News, 24 March)

If traffic lights are all that is needed to solve the chronic congestion in Llanbedr, they would have been installed decades ago. On account of residential parking on the main road from close to Hafan Artro to St. Peter’s Church, the A496 is effectively a single track road for about 300 yards through the centre of the village, either side of the bridge, most of it without a pavement, making it dangerous to pedestrians and cyclists.

Putting traffic lights close to the bridge and the junctions to the roads to the east and the west, would lead to frequent total gridlock. If traffic lights are located at either end of this one track stretch even longer delays will occur for all traffic.

More slow moving and idling traffic will further increase the harmful emissions of CO2, NOX and particulates.

The bypass will remove all these problems. Their reference to the “unnecessary bypass to nowhere” is ludicrous. The new road also provides much needed improved access to the strategically important Snowdonia Aerospace Centre at the Airfield and to the large Shell Island Camp Site. The former has, within the past few weeks, received a massive boost from the Welsh Government with its commitment to Llanbedr as part of its new Space Strategy and the creation of Space Port Snowdonia there.

Many vital and exciting initiatives are in the pipeline, including net zero technologies for aircraft, providing a unique opportunity to bring many high skilled and well paid jobs to Ardudwy.

The Llanbedr Access Road and Bypass —its full title — is an essential asset to enable the airfield to reach its full potential. The Welsh Government has already committed funding for the development of a new access to the site and highway improvements in the area. They claim that there is overwhelming weight of opposition to the bypass. They clearly did not attend the public meeting at the airfield in December, hosted by local and national elected representatives and Gwynedd Council and attended by 200 local people and business leaders operating in Llanbedr and at the airfield.

Not a single voice was raised in opposition to the bypass! A petition to reinstate the bypass has over 2600 signatures.

They want to “leave our lovely village as it is”....condemning residents and visitors to significant dangers to their health, safety and prosperity, forcing young people to move away from their homes here to find good careers, risking lives by emergency services being stuck in traffic, buses being unable to keep to time, delays to businesses and delivery services and subjecting the ancient bridge to increasing heavy traffic and risk of damage which would be catastrophic to the whole of Ardudwy.

Freely running traffic at 40mph on the new road will generate less CO2 than vehicles stuck in the Llanbedr congestion.

The new road will help not hinder the Welsh Government achieve its decarbonisation targets and therefore should be built as soon as possible as an essential part of the infrastructure of the Aerospace Technology Park at the Airfield and to relieve the harmful and dangerous congestion in the village.T

he residents of Llanbedr will then be able to rejoice like those in Bont Newydd who have quickly realised the benefits the new Caernarfon bypass has brought them.

David Naylor, Harlech