Plaid AM Adam Price condemns 'sneering' over budget deals

Adam Price defended Plaid Cymru for trying to get some investment in the areas it represented

A Plaid Cymru AM has defended his party for trying to get investment in the areas it represents after a Labour AM warned against "pork barrel" projects being put in budgets to win support.

Adam Price accused other AMs of "sneering", claiming Plaid was trying to equalise levels of Welsh investment.

A bypass is set to be built in his constituency under a Labour-Plaid deal.

Finance Secretary Mark Drakeford said all parts of Wales saw major investments.

On Tuesday, Labour AM Lee Waters warned against "pork barrel" budget deals that include bypass projects.

The final Welsh budget for 2017/18 includes £50m for a bypass at Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire.

Mr Price, who represents the town as AM for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, said Welsh Government capital spending in mid and west Wales over four years was half the figure for south east Wales of more than £1,000 per head.

"Next year it is projected to fall to 29% - nothing can justify that level of gap," Mr Price said, during finance questions in the Senedd on Wednesday.

'Bloody scraps'

"We heard in the chamber yesterday, I would say a rather sneering tone of metropolitan provincialism attacking my party for at least trying to get some concession, some investment, in the regions and the constituencies that we represent.

"We make no apology for equalising the level of investment," he said, saying those attitudes were "were present on the Conservative benches as well, also from members that either represent or live in the most prosperous part of Wales".

Mr Price, Plaid's economy spokesman, pressed Mr Drakeford on the issue, saying: "I would ask him this: will he commit to equalising the level of investment across Wales so that it is not left up to my party year in year out to fight for bloody scraps at the bottom of anyone's pork barrel?"

Mark Drakeford said it is inevitable that some major investments will follow Wales' population

In response, Mr Drakeford said there were major investments in "all parts of Wales".

"The vast bulk of the population of Wales lives in certain parts of Wales. It's inevitable that some of the major investments will follow that," he said.

Mr Price and Mr Waters have clashed previously on the Llandeilo bypass project.

Adam Price and Lee Waters clashed over the Llandeilo bypass before Christmas

A tweet where Mr Price said Plaid had secured cash for the scheme had prompted a debate between him and Mr Waters back in December.

Mr Waters called the road project a "climate busting commitment" that Plaid leader Leanne Wood had "insisted on whilst chastising" Welsh Government "for not doing enough on climate change".

Mr Price told Mr Waters that air pollution was the second biggest killer in the UK. "Diverting traffic away from [the] town is a public health imperative," he said.

Mr Waters accused the Plaid AM of "chronic short-term thinking".