Are town centre road costs spiralling?

It may be running up to two months late, but the Welsh Government says it is still unable to say how much Welshpool’s new road system will be costing the tax payer.

There are fears that the delays and the additional work carried out in the town centre have seen the costs spiral.

Local officials appeared to be kept in the dark about the original budget for the job when MyWelshpool made local requests for information prior to the work starting in April.

And following a MyWelshpool Freedom of Information request this week, a Welsh Government spokesperson said: “I can confirm that the Welsh Government does not currently hold the information you have asked for. The reason for this is the on-site construction has not yet been completed and there will be further work required on trunking and de-trunking issues before the total costs are known.

“When the work has been completed and reviewed, as with normal business practice, we can make available the total cost of the project.”

It was originally planned to be completed well ahead of the summer holidays, but additional work has caused a lengthy delay through the summer holidays.

And while the workers are still cracking on, there are hopes that the end is in sight in the coming days with traffic to reverting back to two-way on the back road.