News

Frustration grows over government support for £20m road repairs

20 Aug 2026 4 minute read

Aerial view of the A469 at Troedrhiwfuwch. Credit: Caerphilly County Borough Council

Nicholas Thomas Local Democracy Reporter

A council faces having to largely foot a £20 million bill for major repairs to a key road after failing to secure more financial support from the Welsh Government.

Caerphilly Council has appealed to both the previous Labour-led administration and the new Plaid Cymru government for help funding repairs to the A469 but is expected to largely finance the project itself.

Council leader Jamie Pritchard said he was frustrated by the response and claimed repeated requests for a meeting with Wales’ new deputy transport minister to discuss the scheme had been unsuccessful.

“I don’t understand why a meeting has not been agreed, especially considering the cross-party support between Labour and Plaid councillors on this important issue,” he said. “I will keep on the case to the new government. Caerphilly’s Labour council has committed to getting the work done.”

The Welsh Government said transport funding plans are approved collaboratively between South East Wales’ councils, to “enable long-term decisions to be made that work best for communities”.

Around a decade of road issues linked to landslips have impacted the A469, which serves as the main arterial route for the north of Caerphilly County Borough.

Cllr Pritchard vowed to finally fix the road when he became council leader in late 2025, and has made no secret of his disappointment that Cardiff Bay hasn’t contributed more to the project.

General view of roadworks on the A469 between Pontlottyn and Tirphil, pictured in July 2025. Credit: Google

In January – while Welsh Labour was still in power nationally – councillors voted unanimously to back the £20 million repair plan, amid cross-party calls for the government to offer more financial support.

At the time, Cllr Pritchard said he was “banging on the door, saying we need that support” to Labour’s then-transport secretary Ken Skates.

The council leader told the Local Democracy Reporting Service he’d had three meetings with Mr Skates, which helped bring in around £1.2 million of government funding for the project.

But Cllr Pritchard has failed to secure a similar meeting with the new deputy transport minister, Mark Hooper.

Noting Plaid councillors’ demands in January for more government funding, Cllr Pritchard said: “Clearly, given the call from both Labour and Plaid councillors for Welsh Government support for the A469, only Labour has delivered this [at a national level].

“I am bitterly disappointed not to have gained this back from the Plaid government.”

He has also contacted Plaid’s three Senedd Members for the Blaenau Gwent Caerffili Rhymni constituency, urging them to “influence the deputy minister to come good on a call for funding the A469”.

But one of those MSs, Lindsay Whittle, questioned why the council “did not ask the last Labour government of the past 27 years why they didn’t fully fund this road”.

“Now they expect a new, four-months-old government to fix everything immediately,” he said.

Cllr Charlotte Bishop, who leads the Plaid group in opposition in the council chamber, told the January meeting of her “severe disappointment that the Welsh Government hasn’t put more of a hand in their pocket” to help fund the project.

Responding to Cllr Pritchard’s new comments, she said she was “frustrated this road has been left in such a state of disrepair for so long”.

“I absolutely want to see action, and I want to see it as quickly as possible,” she said. “But we also have to be realistic – four months is a very short period in which to address decades of problems with infrastructure across Wales.

“The previous Welsh Labour government had 27 years in which to tackle these issues, and in many cases failed to do so.

“I will continue to press the current government for progress and for this road to be made safe, but it is not reasonable to expect decades of neglect across Wales to be rectified in such a short period of time.”

A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “Funding decisions on projects such as the A469 are made through the South East Wales Corporate Joint Committee (CJC).

“The region has been allocated £43 million over the next financial year for local transport schemes, and it is for the councils to choose what schemes to invest in.”

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