MONMOUTH AM Nick Ramsay again raised the question of flooding in Llanellen during an exchange in the Senedd, last week.

The Conservative AM said that ongoing concerns in the village would only worsen with the advent of the new Grange Critical Care Hospital due to open soon.

The ongoing issue stretches back to September when Mr Ramsay wrote to the Welsh transport minister, Ken Skates, where he passed on his constituents’ long-running concerns that the old bridge was ’no longer suited’ to current traffic.

The hump-backed bridge on the A4042 is too narrow to allow larger vehicles to pass side-by-side, meaning as drivers approach the bridge, they are warned to expect oncoming traffic in the middle of the road.

Mr Ramsay then pointed to a number of accidents on the bridge, and occasional heavy flooding in the village, prompting him to ask the Welsh Government to give priority to a new bridge in Llanellen.

Last week, he said, “There is one obvious, although costly, solution, which would be a bypass for the village, avoiding this particularly problematic section altogether and also avoiding the bridge, which has problems as well.

“Plans for a Llanellen bypass and a bypass further south at Penperlleni go back decades but have remained pipe dreams because of the cost issue.

“Now that the new Grange University Hospital is well under way and will be opening next year, I wonder if we could revisit the possibility of a bypass at this problematic section of the A4042. At some point in the future, patients’ lives could depend on it and commuters would certainly like to see improvements.”

Ken Skates AM, Minister for Economy & Transport responded,

“Through the new Wales transport strategy, we’ll be able to take a view of all opportunities to improve the resilience of the road network, and not just the resilience of the road network, but other means of being able to get people from A to B.

“You’ve seen, for example, bus services, active travel and rail services.

“Now, I think it’s fair to say that, following discussions with the landowner and the tenant farmer, the farmer did extraordinary work in clearing ditches within his land back in 2018, 2019.

“I am very grateful for that work to help with the flooding on the A4042.

“We keep it well monitored and we will consider all means to address any further flooding that takes place.”

Mr Skates said recently that ’replacement of the existing bridge is not considered a feasible option, as it is a Grade II-listed structure.’

The transport minister also said providing a new bridge was unfeasible ’due to the need to acquire land and properties and concerns that it may affect the visual footprint of the existing bridge.’

He added that Welsh Government had discussed previously, with heritage organisation CADW and Monmouthshire County Council, about modifying the bridge, but had been advised that such work would not be supported by those organisations because of the bridge’s listed and special-interest status.