Call for united front on Ammanford traffic (From South Wales Guardian)

Call for united front on Ammanford traffic

8:50am Friday 4th May 2012 in News

AMMANFORD town councillors say they are happy to join forces with their Betws counterparts in a bid to tackle long-running traffic issues.

They want to explore the possibility of a zebra crossing in Foundry Road and also look atways of improving the flow of traffic around the town.

Last month the Guardian reported that Betws community councillors had urged the town council to back their campaign for a zebra crossing – and claimed three earlier approaches to Ammanford had been ignored.

But at last week’s meeting, Cllr Jane Potter insisted Betws were mistaken.

“We as a council are certainly unaware that we have been approached three times,” she said.

Town clerk Miriam Phillips replied: “We’ve not been asked – no formal request for a meeting has been given to Ammanford town council.”

But Cllr Wendy Evans favoured a united front. “We should meet with Betws and Carmarthenshire county council to thrash this out, the sooner the better,” she said.

“If this crossing is provided it’ll slow the traffic down yet again – I think it’s about time the county council sorted this out.

“We have to see what can be done about the flow of traffic in Ammanford. The other day I was caught in a gridlock stretching all the way back to NewRoad.”

Cllr Potter pointed out that town councillors had pre-empted Betws calls for the Quay Street level crossing to be reopened to traffic, only to learn from Network Rail that it was situated too close to the Tesco crossing.

“We were told we couldn’t have two level crossings so close together,”

she said.

“Closing the Tesco crossing and reopening Quay Street would be far more effective,” claimed deputy mayor Andrew Williams.