THE Welsh Government’s transport minister denied claims yesterday that the planned M4 relief road in Newport was “the wrong road, at the wrong price, at the wrong time.”

Attacking the ‘black route’ to the south of the city as an expensive mistake, Rhun ap Iorwerth AM, representing Ynys Môn, said the money used to finance it could have been used to support Welsh jobs instead.

He said the previously considered ‘blue route’, upgrading the Southern Distributor Road and the former steelworks road, could have been completed faster as it was less likely to be subject to judicial review.

But Edwina Hart AM, minister for economy, science and transport, said she had always anticipated the road would be controversial.

Mr Ap Iorwerth asked her yesterday at the Senedd in Cardiff Bay: “With more than one in five young people still unemployed in Wales, do you think spending every last penny of your borrowing capacity and its job creation potential on a new M4 is a good idea?”

Ms Hart said discussions on an M4 relief road dated back to 1989. “Now as a government we have adopted a plan and identified a preferred road route which we will now continue to design and develop”, she said. “No final decisions have been made on this matter.”

Mr Ap Iorwerth asked: “If you are saying no final decisions have been made, are you admitting it’s time to rethink now that members of all parties in this chamber have criticised your decision making process?”

He described the proposed route as “the wrong road, at the wrong price, at the wrong time.”

But Ms Hart said she had always expected a judicial review of the decision and that after a public enquiry considering environmental concerns and alternative routes a final decision was likely to be in 2017.

Mr ap Iorwerth said: “You did outline a rather optimistic time table, if I may say, when you unveiled your plans to press ahead with the black route in July. We know we have a judicial review that is imminent. The blue route of course would have been able to progress without such risk of judicial review and the associated delays. Do you admit that in pressing ahead with the black route you have failed to foresee the likely delays?"

The minister said: “I’m not so certain there wouldn’t be a judicial review on any other route. The blue route would be in very close proximity to local residents and industry. Its introduction may require demolition of residential housing and the relocation of some significant industry. Higher traffic levels on the blue route may mean air quality and noise issues for neighbouring properties. There’s no guarantee that that is a simple solution.”

The £1 billion ‘black route’ was settled on in July, with a proposed opening date of 2022.

The selected route was one of three put forward in the Welsh government’s consultation, and runs between Junctions 23 and 29.