I understood
why electrifying the main line from Paddington to Swansea should be a top
priority. I can also understand why the
lines running through the South Wales valley should be the second
priority. But there are still unelectrified
lines in west and north of Wales, and I cannot understand why the scheme
to electrify those is not being brought forward ahead of the revamp of Cardiff
station.
I try to avoid
falling prey to simplistic regional jealousies pitting one part of Wales gets
another. And given the concentration of
population and employment in the south-east, the status of Cardiff as the
capital, I can understand the logic of an electrification scheme which serves
that area first. It shouldn’t end there
though, and a desire to avoid internal competition shouldn’t become an abject
acceptance that all investment goes to one corner.
The comment
made by the Institute of Directors (“If
Cardiff is to compete with other cities in the UK and internationally for
investment, then it really needs a train station that is as good as anything
else”) sounded like a reprise of why we have to build the extra M4 around
Newport, why we have to create a city region based on Cardiff, and why we have
to build the Greater Cardiff Metro. How
many more things does Cardiff “need” because we will not get economic
development without them, and when will Cardiff have ‘enough’ grand schemes to
allow serious investment elsewhere in Wales?
It increasingly
looks as though the answer is never – no sooner has one key problem been
overcome then another one gets pushed to the fore.
There will always be another key obstacle to Cardiff's development which the rest of Wales will
have to pay for, as funds are directed to that one corner of the country.
It’s hard to
deny that Cardiff is receiving a substantial devolution dividend, but what
about the rest of Wales? Replicating the
south-east bias of the UK was never anyone’s stated intention – yet that’s
where we seem to be going.
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1 comment:
'Replicating the south-east bias of the UK was never anyone’s stated intention – yet that’s where we seem to be going.'
You seem shocked? I cannot understand why.
I live in north west Wales and and up here we do very little to benefit any other part of Wales. Indeed, we are merely a hefty burden upon the rest of the tax paying population. And with successive generations matters worsen.
Why do we deserve any more than we already get? Indeed, why do we deserve what we already get?
It's time people started to wake up and smell the coffee. Times are a'changing. If you can't, don't or won't you shouldn't expect much in return.
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