We see continued pressures on our public services. The backlog of school building maintenance in Powys is worth £77 million, writes councillor Elwyn Vaughan.

We see the threat to our leisure centres with increased energy costs crippling swimming pools. Now a  survey conducted by motoring group the RAC foundation says 62 of the county’s 1335 bridges are ‘sub-standard’.

Road bridges in Powys need £9 million worth of investment to bring them up to standard, they say. 

Yet Wales is set to miss out on more than £1bn of funding for transport after the UK Government classified a second rail scheme based entirely in England as an “England and Wales” project. 

The decision to classify Northern Powerhouse Rail, a link between Liverpool and Leeds, as benefitting both England and Wales follows the controversy over the High Speed 2 (HS2) rail link which has been classified as England and Wales despite connecting London and Birmingham and then on to Manchester.

OTHER NEWS:

Wales is set to miss out on as much as £5bn in consequential spending if the HS2 project costs £100bn, although the latest reports that the line to Crewe is being delayed for two years suggest that the current estimate is £71bn, which would make Wales’ share £3.55bn.

When huge investments are planned in England – we should receive the consequential funding to improve our inadequate network. Instead, Westminster pushes blatant lies about how English projects will somehow benefit us in Wales.

People in Wales want decent, cheap, reliable public transport. I’m well aware that Liverpool used to be described as the capital of north Wales, and that the Leeds area centuries ago was part of the old Welsh North, but to pretend that this new link is now part of Wales is ridiculous to say the least.

 

County Times:

It will clearly do nothing to improve transport within Wales. 
That’s a combined potential £6bn that Wales should be receiving. Time and again, the Tories undermine the Welsh economy, while Keir Starmer’s Labour Party are all too happy to nod along.

And as if that wasn’t enough we now have Thames Water wants to abstract up to 155m litres of water a day from Efyrnwy to boost supplies to London in the coming years paying a mere 3p a tonne - and both Conservatives and Labour allow this to happen whilst we lack much needed investment in our basic services. 

Wake up Wales.

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