IN THE midst of the news of the resurrection of the M4 Relief Road, campaigners in Newport breathed a sigh of relief that plans to bore a tunnel in the city were ditched.

In 2012 consultants working for the Welsh Government launched a consultation exploring four options for relieving congestion on the M4.

None of the options included a new motorway and all were cheaper than what has become known as the M4 Relief Road – scrapped in 2009 due to cost.

One plan proposed a new tunnel at Brynglas, prompting opposition across the city and claims the consultation effectively stopped people from being able to sell their homes.

But last week’s announcement that the government was to move forward with the M4 Relief Road as its preferred solution effectively killed off the plans proposed in the consultation, to the delight of those who had spoken out.

Jo Sweeney, a Brynglas resident and anti-tunnel campaigner, said she was pleased that the consultation discounted digging a new hole under the suburb.

She said it will mean people can get on with selling homes or moving into the area – with Brynglas having suffered blight as a result of the proposals.

“Obviously we’re over the moon,” she said. “The community can get on with making plans for their future.

“There’s a few people that haven’t been able to sell their houses. It has caused a lot of upheaval in the community.”

There were fears that hundreds of homes could have been been bulldozed in Brynglas and other parts of Newport to build some of the options proposed in the 2012 consultation.

Paul Cockeram, Newport council councillor for Shaftesbury ward which covers Brynglas, said it was a “great relief” that the development was now unlikely to take place.

Cllr Cockeram had himself lived through the construction of the first Brynglas tunnel which he said caused houses to collapse and forced some to live in hotels for as long as 18 months.

Concern appeared to run high in the area, and Cllr Cockeram said he was called every week by residents asking him for news.

“They wanted to sell. Some were hoping the Welsh Government would buy their houses off them,” he said.

“It’s not just the residential side – the church would have come down, the hotel, the fire station.”

Cllr Cockeram said the tunnel idea did not address the “major problem of a small motorway feeding Wales”.

“Every other motorway is three lanes or more. When you think its the gateway to Wales, you are always going to have problems with it,” he said.

ARUP initially assessed four options for solving the problem of M4 congestion – a new tunnel at Brynglas with a wider motorway, a new high quality road south of Newport and two different sets of upgrades to the Southern Distributor Road.

Consultants said the tunnel plan should be dropped, saying widening the existing sub-standard M4 would not provide long term resilience to the motorway and trunk road network in south east Wales.

The original study concluded that a new road south of Newport was the best option but a new motorway came back on the table following discussions between Cardiff officials and the Treasury.

ARUP hence recommended a previous plan for the M4 Relief Road, which was given planning protection in 2006.

The study said that the provision of a new motorway could allow for the current M4 route to be better integrated into Newport, such as re-opening the western approaches to Junction 25.

It could also see the M4 in the city downgraded to the trunk road to allow for simpler interchanges at Magor and Castleton.

Proposals have also been made for a road link between the M48 and the B4245 – reflecting longstanding calls for a link between the motorway and Caldicot.