Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the state of the grass verge of the A470 between Llanrwst and Betws-y-Coed, and explain whether consideration has been given to ensuring that every vehicle access point to fields along this section of road has a hard surface?
We continue to maintain the verges on this stretch in accordance with Welsh Government’s Trunk Road Maintenance Manual. Grass cutting is carried out in late spring (a safety cut adjacent to the carriageway) and a full verge cut in early autumn after wild plants have flowered and set seed. In addition, we seek to enhance verges where the opportunity arises, under our ‘Road Verges for Wildflowers’ initiative such as the wildflower seed sowing carried out at Llanrwst.
With 1000’s of private means of access and field accesses along the trunk road network in Wales we do not have a general policy of routinely considering or providing hard surfaces as this would be cost prohibitive. However, where trunk road upgrade schemes or resurfacing work is being carried out we may consider improving accesses if appropriate. In addition, should particular problems be brought to our attention we would investigate these on an individual basis and seek to resolve issues if practical.