‘God help us if a fire engine needs to get out’

Mywelshpool spends a great day at the North Wales coast only to return back to a full in-box of angry mail.

 

While we were basking in the glorious Llandudno sunshine and enjoying fast flowing carriageways, it appears – judging by our in-box and Facebook wall – that we left behind a Good Friday fiasco.

 

We have never received such angry mail. Most of which we could never publish! However, out of those calm enough not to include expletives, the town’s planners have been labelled “clowns” by one and “reckless” by another with one resident on Salop Road claiming he felt like a “prisoner in my own home”.

 

A holidaymaker told us it took him four hours to get from Birmingham to the Llanfair Railway with the last two miles through Welshpool taking him an hour alone.

 

By 1pm, it appears (and again we have no verification as we were eating heated donuts around then in a deckchair on the beach) that traffic was backed up to Garth Derwen on the A458, while by 3.30pm (at that time we were enjoying the views from the Great Orme with ice creams in hand) it appeared traffic had finally started to move.

 

Another reader claimed it was the “death knell” for the town but on a much more serious note, one commented on our Facebook wall: “God knows what would happen if they needed to get the fire engines out.”

 

Town Clerk Robert Robinson conceded defeat today but also pointed out that the problems weren’t confided to Welshpool.

 

He said: “Everywhere I spoke to, towns are snarled up due to what appears to be two or three times the normal Easter traffic. Let's hope all settles down for the rest of the summer. A review will be held regularly with Powys County Council road engineers.”

 

Unfortunately for Welshpool, mywelshpool’s decision to avoid the chaos and head north is likely to be replicated in future by thousands of fed-up holiday makers along with their valuable cash which the town desperately needs.