Inquest begins into long load misery

 

Mywelshpool exposed last night (Monday) that giant wind turbine blades were set to be transported through Montgomeryshire today, and in a bizarre turn of events the convoy decided not to travel through the night but crossed the border during rush hour.

 

It caused misery for thousands of motorists who were caught out, despite the promise that we would all be informed when it would be travelling through so we could avoid the sort of chaos witnessed today.

 

And to add more confusion, both the Welsh Government and Powys County Council, who manage all Welsh roads between them, say they were only aware of the loads when contacted by media.

 

A Powys County Council insider said they were “fuming” and were investigating what went wrong while Montgomeryshire Assembly Member, Russell George, revealed that Traffic Wales had also been kept in the dark.

 

“I fail to understand why Traffic Wales were unaware that this abnormal load was travelling across Mid Wales to Cefn Croes today. After all, it reached the Welsh border at Oswestry last night and that’s where it stayed until this morning when it was moved during the height of rush hour period. So why was it kept in the dark?

 

“The load went past Welshpool and through Newtown and it did cause traffic congestion at a number of points along the route; and this is just one load on one given day. Potentially if all the wind farm developments that are earmarked for Mid Wales are built, we could see 2-3 loads a day like this on Mid Wales roads for up to a period of seven years; that’s neither desirable nor sustainable.

 

 “I’ll be interested to hear the First Minister’s explanation of what happened today but I’ll also be interested to see if he comments further on the capability of Mid Wales road network to take the magnitude of such loads because I think it seriously calls into question the viability of future wind farm developments on the scale proposed.”

 

The First Minister has said he would investigate the Traffic Wales incident and write to Mr George in greater detail.

 

Meanwhile, the questions will continue to be asked as to why the wind farm industry, which has been so keen to be seen to be working with local communities, decided to keep this one under the radar.