THE future of multi-million pound road improvement schemes for the A487 in Ceredigion - which formed part of a review after the Welsh Government announced a freeze on new road building projects last year - remains up in the air as Ministers said its response to the review “needs to be reconsidered.”

Projects that were put on hold as a review of highway schemes was undertaken in a bid to tackle climate change included a £5.95 million scheme to improve safety on the A487 Llanrhystud is a “priority” due to “risky” overtaking from cars in both directions, and cars “speeding through the village”, and a £17.4m scheme outside Aberarth, which would see the construction of two climbing lane sections to provide overtaking opportunities.

Public consultations into both schemes had been held in 2021, along with similar schemes in Llangurig and Llanidloes, but no outcome of those has yet been published by the Welsh Government.

The review panel gave its recommendation to the Welsh Government back in September, with a decision on which projects would get the go-ahead expected early in the New Year.

However, this week Deputy Minister for Climate Change, Lee Waters MS, said that the Welsh Government would “now reconsider our full response to the Roads Review in light of the deteriorating fiscal and economic situation we have been placed in by the UK Government”, pushing the date for a decision on the schemes back further.

“The Roads Review makes recommendations about future transport policy as well as judging the 55 roads schemes in the current pipeline against existing policy,” Mr Waters said.

“Responding to the recommendations is a complex piece of work which has been further complicated by the significant reduction in our spending power following the UK Government’s financial crash.

“As a result of the Autumn Statement the Welsh Government’s capital budgets will be 8.1 per cent lower in 2024-25.

“It is important that we now reconsider our full response to the Roads Review in light of the deteriorating fiscal and economic situation we have been placed in by the UK Government.

“We will set out our response, together with those schemes which we will be taking forward, in our National Transport Delivery Plan, which will be published shortly.”

Chair of the review panel Dr Lynn Sloman MBE, said: “The climate emergency makes it imperative that we avoid any investment that increases carbon emissions, especially in the next 15 years when most cars on the road will still be petrol and diesel vehicles.

“We also need to understand the problems that road schemes have been designed to address and consider how those problems can be tackled without increasing carbon.”