MP to meet council chiefs over Welshpool road complaints

Montgomeryshire MP Glyn Davies is to meet with Powys County Council bosses after receiving a 'huge amount' of complaints about Welshpool's one-way system.

Mr Davies said he was meeting with a committee of councillors next week to express his concerns about the 14-month-old system, which he says is harming business in the town, and has 'failed abysmally'.

He said he had been inundated with complaints from residents and businesses since the system changed in February 2011, and he hoped Powys County Council would step in and make changes.

He said: "There can no longer be any doubt that residents and businesses of Welshpool are deeply un-happy with the one-way system imposed on their town.

"It works fine when there is not much traffic, but fails abysmally when cars and lorries come along.

"Intense pressure has persuaded the Welsh Government to move forward with a bypass for Newtown and we need the same sort of pressure to sort out the problems at Welshpool

"It's not just Welshpool itself that loses out. It's the whole of central Wales.

"Tourists, frustrated by the traffic chaos at Newtown, opted to use the A458 to Dolgellau. Now the route through Welshpool has been messed up as well.

"Tourists must wonder what they've done to deserve such miserable treatment.

"Residents and business want the one-way system to be scrapped, and for Broad Street and Brook Street be made two-way again – allowing traffic to move as it has done since the bypass was built in the 1990s."

Businesses are set to meet on Monday at the town hall to discuss the problems.

Councillor Steve Kaye, for the Welshpool Business Forum, said: "This is a very important meeting."

By Andrew Morris