Welsh town facing infuriating nightmare that never seems to end

Councillors have voiced their concerns with one saying the busy town needs to be ‘robust enough to cope when the unexpected happens’

Days of traffic mayhem have sparked renewed calls for action on congestion in a Welsh border town. Commuters travelling in and out of Chepstow experienced lengthy delays after strong winds shut the M48 first Severn Bridge from Thursday afternoon until the early hours of Friday.

Consequently, a scheduled overnight closure of the westbound M4 Prince of Wales had to be postponed until the M48 bridge was reopened. Motorists endured further hardship with extensive delays, up to an hour, on the M4 from junction 23A at Magor with traffic stretching back well into England during Thursday afternoon’s rush hour.

This marked the second consecutive day that severe congestion brought Chepstow to a standstill after a lorry broke down on the A48 bridge, over the Wye, near the Tesco superstore during Wednesday afternoon’s rush hour.

Gwent Police dispatched two officers to the scene from around 5pm until the road was cleared at 7.20pm and arranged for the vehicle to be recovered.

This reduced traffic flow across the town to a snail’s pace, which also resulted in delays on the M48 Severn Bridge with traffic likewise stretching back into England from both Chepstow bridges. Newport Bus, which operates services between the city and Chepstow, warned of ensuing delays.

Traffic flowing in and out of Wales through Chepstow has also faced disruption following the closure to vehicles, since last October, of the Old Wye Bridge on safety grounds, after a crack was discovered on one of its pillars. The closure of the single lane bridge could remain in place for up to 18 months.

Councillors representing the town have previously been divided on whether a bypass, backed by Monmouthshire County Council when it was under Conservative control, or a new bridge further north and across the Severn in Gloucestershire, provides the best solution to easing congestion.

A Severn crossing from Lydney to Sharpness has been proposed by Monmouthshire Labour MP Catherine Fookes and the county council’s deputy leader, Labour’s Paul Griffiths who represents the town’s Castle and Larkfield ward. Currently drivers from Lydney must travel nine miles south on the A48 and through Chepstow to use the Severn Bridge to reach the M4 and M5.

Bulwark and Thornwell councillor Armand Watts said he was caught up in crawling traffic on Wednesday. The Labour councillor said: “I had to take the dog to the vet’s and it took about 40 minutes. It would be a five-minute journey normally. It was chaos.”

“One vehicle breaking down, or perhaps running out of petrol, has caused for a short period of time gridlock. It’s not Chepstow’s fault, the problem is all the new housing being built in Lydney and why we need to discuss a new Severn crossing from Lydney to Sharpness.”

Mount Pleasant ward councillor Paul Pavia, who was part of Monmouthshire’s Conservative administration that advocated for a bypass, said it had taken his wife nearly an hour to travel approximately one and a half miles from the Severn Bridge to their home on Wednesday.

Cllr Pavia said he has raised concerns about Chepstow’s capacity to accommodate additional traffic given Monmouthshire’s own development plan proposing 146 homes near the Highbeech roundabout and 770 further west near Portskewett.

He said: “An accident at any of the pinch-points through the town brings it and the surrounding areas to a halt. The pressure has been made worse with the closure of the old Wye Bridge. There has got to be an element of urgency to resolve this.”

Cllr Christopher Edwards, Conservative for the town’s St Kingsmark ward, said a shortage of alternative routes is exposed during incidents such as Wednesday’s.

He said: “The regular occurrence of vehicle breakdowns in Chepstow is not just an inconvenience – it exposes how fragile our local road network has become.

“We need a combination of better traffic management, quicker roadside response to clear incidents, and long-term infrastructure improvements to Highbeech and the once proposed Chepstow bypass to provide resilience when problems occur; particularly in light of the proposed house building both sides on the border.

“Chepstow is a busy gateway town and our transport system needs to be robust enough to cope when the unexpected happens, which is often.”

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