Future Generations Commissioner issues warning to Welsh Government over M4 plans

Emily Price 

The Future Generations Commissioner for Wales has urged the Welsh Government not to “take Wales backwards” ahead of a major announcement on the future of the M4 motorway.

Issuing a stark warning over this summer’s extreme heat and wildfires, Derek Walker said proposals for an M4 relief road around Newport had been rejected “for good reason”.

He said: “The climate and nature emergency has not disappeared, they are getting worse, as this summer’s deadly extreme heat, school closures and economic disruption made painfully clear.

“The M4 Relief Road was rejected for good reason, with the Well-being of Future Generations Act helping to protect vital natural habitats and prevent huge costs being handed to future generations.

“We cannot solve today’s transport problems with yesterday’s answers and any new plan must again pass the future generations test, delivering better connectivity across Wales, better public transport, more choice for people and solutions that work for communities and nature, not against them.”

It comes as the Deputy Minister for Transport Mark Hooper prepares to issue a statement in the Senedd on Tuesday (October 6) relating to his strategic priorities for the Menai Strait crossings and M4 motorway around Newport.

The 14-mile stretch of road proposed by the previous Labour Welsh Government was designed to bypass traffic congestion on Wales’ busiest road south of Newport by building a new motorway on the Gwent Levels.

But the six-lane scheme was axed in June 2019 by then-First Minister Mark Drakeford – a highly controversial decision given over £100m had been spent on the project already.

The cost of the project had ballooned to over £1.6 billion and Drakeford ruled the road would cause irreversible damage to the protected wildlife and habitats of the Gwent Levels nature reserve.

It followed a public inquiry overseen by former planning inspector Bill Wadrup, who concluded that a scheme from Junction 23 to Junction 29 was in the public interest and that environmental objections were overstated.

In June 2025, the Welsh Conservatives tabled a motion that the party hoped with revive the project.

However, Plaid Cymru and Welsh Labour teamed up to vote the motion down.

In June this year, Mr Hopper said a third crossing over the Menai Strait was still being considered, but he ruled reviving Welsh Labour’s plans for an M4 relief road.

The deputy minister said the Plaid Cymru government would instead consider “all other road options” including junction closures, adding that the overall solutions to Newport’s M4 problems are “public transport focused” – in line with the Burns Commission’s recommendations in 2020.

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