Travel Trouble Through The Tundra

With no sign of a thaw and predictions of more snow on its way, Ynys Môn is beginning to look like an arctic tundra. Although most trunk roads are open and ice-free, like many other people I have spoken to, I have had a few hairy moments on some B roads and in town centres. The exit from Llangefni's one-way street yesterday morning for example was something resembling an ice-rink. Pedestrians are also suffering due to icy pavements thanks to lack of surplus salt. Business leaders throughout Wales are complaining that access roads to business parks and industrial estates have not been gritted and that staff and deliveries just aren't able to get through. What effect this is having on Anglesey's struggling businesses -- at what should be their busiest time of the year -- is exceptionally worrying.

And it could be about to get worse as, according to WalesOnline, many Welsh councils now only have a few more days worth of salt left -- meaning that if more snow does come as predicted we could all find ourselves snowed-in. Apparently WAG is awaiting the import of 12,000 tonnes of extra salt "at the end of the month" -- which is still some time away. After all the chaos of last winter's salt and grit shortages -- and the ample warnings of another cold winter -- I would have hoped that the Welsh Assembly Government and Ieuan Wyn Jones as Transport Minister would have been better prepared this time.

I would be very interested in what experiences you have had trying to get around the island in the snow. Have you been able to get to work? Have you had trouble getting to shops? Any un-passable roads?

The mystery of GWR and the Lein Amlwch vote

Two weeks ago I noted how the proposal to change the preferred use of Lein Amlwch to a railway had been passed in a Full Council meeting with only one dissenting voice. I may think that Cllr Fflur Hughes was wrong to vote against the motion, but at least she had the courage of her convictions to stand her ground and clearly state her reasons.

What, therefore, are we to make of the fact that the councillor for Amlwch Rural -- a region likely to benefit greatly if Lein Amlwch was to re-open -- purposely left the council chamber before the vote? Gareth Winston Roberts claims that he is all for the reopening of the line but that he had other meetings to attend. Amlwch residents would be entitled to wonder what meetings are more important than the full council meetings he is paid to attend as their representative -- especially when such an important development to Amlwch's economic future is being debated?

It is also a fact that in addition to Gareth Winston Roberts, both of the other two members of his Anglesey Forward grouping also left the council chamber before the vote, namely Derlwyn Hughes (Moelfre) and William T Hughes (Llanbadrig). I have noted before that fully two out of the three Anglesey Forward councillors were returned unopposed at the last local elections, and that Anglesey Forward is now the only council grouping not to have responded in any way whatsoever to the People's Manifesto put together by commenters on this blog. It has become increasingly apparent to me that 'Anglesey Forward' has more of a whiff of thinking itself beyond democratic accountability.

Thumbs up for Lein Amlwch, thumbs down for Cllr Fflur Hughes

In an update to my earlier post, I'm happy to report that the Full Council today voted to support the opening of the Anglesey Central Railway a.k.a. Lein Amlwch.

Only one councillor voted against the decision: Plaid Cymru's Fflur Mai Hughes, who ironically represents the Cefni ward in Llangefni -- one of the places most likely to benefit from the possible construction jobs and improved transport links which the reopened Amlwch Line could bring. One has to wonder whether she bothered to canvass anybody in her ward before voting "no"?

Anyway, I'm sure she will now explain to the residents and businesses in Llangefni why she thinks Llangefni doesn't need the economic boost which the reopening of the Central Anglesey Line would bring. Cllr Hughes was elected by a margin of just 2 votes in the last council elections -- she may find that Cefni residents will decide to dispense with her services in 2012.

Anglesey Council to debate reopening of Anglesey Central Railway (Lein Amlwch) today

Lein Amlwch crossing the Cefni

The Anglesey Central Railway (Lein Amlwch in Welsh) which connects the port of Amlwch via Llangefni to the North Wales Coast Line at Gaerwen has been defunct as a passenger service since 1964 -- though freight services continued up until 1993 to serve Octel.

Supporters have been campaigning for years for the line to be restored and, with the possibility of Wylfa B on the horizon, these calls have recently carried an additional impetus. Consequently Anglesey County Council will be debating issues relating to the possible reopening of the line this afternoon at 2pm. All supporters of Anglesey Central Railway are asked to attend the Council Chamber in Llangefni to show support.

A note to Councillors with parking £-signs in their eyes

Much media interest yesterday in Nottingham City Council's plans to impose a £250 (rising to £350 by 2014) per parking place levy on all companies which offer 11 or more parking places for their employees. Apparently other councils in Bristol, York, Devon, Hampshire, Leeds, Bournemouth, South Somerset and Wiltshire are also considering introducing similar schemes in their area. A spokesperson from Nottingham City Council on R4 yesterday said the idea was to use the revenue raised to fund transport improvements, including new road arrangements and further tram lines in the City.

In these straightened times were councils are looking at large funding cuts it may be a natural response for them to consider trying to raise revenue from other sources - however I would caution Anglesey County Council not to go down this route. Why?

• Anglesey's economy is contracting, hundreds of jobs have been lost during the recent recession, and unemployment here is the highest in North Wales. To secure the Island's future there can be no substitute to the nurture and support of private enterprise on the Island - especially small businesses. This parking levy would directly affect the cash-flow of existing businesses at a difficult time and act as a disincentive for other companies to set-up on the Island. Anglesey County Council may be facing cuts, but the Island cannot afford anything which might act as a drag on our local businesses.
• Affected businesses may pass on this extra cost to their workers. As average earnings  were approx. £396 per week in 2007, compared with £415 per week in Wales and £456 per week in the UK, an additional £250 a year bill for parking at work would further reduce already low average earnings.
• Being a rural area most people need cars to travel to and from work. Anglesey's pubic transport system is not sufficiently robust to support more persons using it to travel to work.
• Even if it was possible to use public transport to get to work, the facts are that people may still need to use cars for a number of reasons. One significant reason would be to deliver young children to daycare centres on the way to work. Daycare is already exceptionally expensive in the UK, without having to face a levy for then parking a car at work.
• Improving transport improvements are incredibly expensive - I am sceptical that the amount of money this proposal would raise on Anglesey would even make a little dent in even a modest roadbuilding or other transport scheme.
• Although I understand that Councils technically have had the power to impose workplace parking levies for a decade, I am extremely uncomfortable with idea of local government interfering unnecessarily or imposing a levy on what goes on legitimately on private land.

...I could go on but I think I have made my point. I would urge Anglesey County Council to look at where it can deliver improved services at a lower costs, before it simply seeks to find alternative revenue streams to sustain its current processes. If private businesses are able to deliver better, higher-spec'd products/services at a lower price every year then there is no reason why the costs for government run services should always invariably be rising.

Anyway, here's my message to any Councillors who have £ signs in their eyes after reading about Nottingham City Council's proposals: don't do it. 

However, if you are not convinced by these arguments, then put proposals to impose workplace levies in your manifestos and campaign on them in the 2012 local elections (which reminds me, we are still waiting to see the manifestos of the Original Independents, Menai Group, and Anglesey Forward).

Quote of the Day (walking tall edition)

  
From the amateur Freudian leader writer in today's Daily Post:

[The] air link allowed the North to walk a little taller.

That's right: we Gogs have such low self-esteem we just don't feel 'whole' without a heavily subsidised air link to Cardiff...
  

++ 'Ieuan Air' goes bust ++

        

Ieuan Wyn Jones demonstrating how he will be commuting between Anglesey & Cardiff from now on

The BBC has just announced that Highland Airways - the company which operates the highly subsidised Anglesey-Cardiff air link - has gone into administration. Not hugely surprising news, especially considering the remarkably blunt comments made by Highland Air's executive Chairman last month regarding the WAG's handling of the contract extension negotiations:

"We suspect that WAG either simply do not want to award any contract to Highland Airways for political reasons or else they hope that Highland Airways will fail and that they can allow the service also to fail – blaming Highland.”

This prompted Ieuan Wyn Jones to leap into action ...by sending a letter to the Daily Post (March 15):

"We are certainly not 'dithering' over the North-South Air link.

We are 100% committed to this service and we certainly do not 'hope it will fail' as claimed by Mr Wright. It has been a great success and our objective is to make sure there is no break in this service.

The facts are that the current contract comes to an end this May and we carried out an open tender process. Unfortunately this was not successful - we did not receive any bids that complied with the requirements of this particular tender.

I want to reassure passengers who use this service that action is being taken to secure its future and keep it in place"

Not sure what the 'requirements' of the tender were - but I would imagine that they would probably include an obligation for the winning airline to operate the link with far less WAG subsidy than was previously necessary (£800,000 per year). The fact that the tender failed probably reflects the economic reality that there just isn't a great demand for the service.

Personally the Druid didn't think that the North-South Air link was such a bad idea. Anglesey is on the periphery of the United Kingdom so an improved transport infrastructure to effectively bring the Island 'closer' to the economic centre is absolutely necessary to attract businesses here. The problem is that the North-South Air link only linked one peripheral part of the UK to another peripheral part. As far as the Druid is concerned it would have made more business sense for the WAG to subsidise an air link between Anglesey and London - even if that wouldn't make IWJ's weekly commute so convenient.

UPDATE: More here from the BBC's Betsan Powys.