Church Village Bypass: £126k mouse bridges not replaced

Two £63,000 bridges to help dormice cross a bypass will not be replaced after they fell down in storms.

The crossings were a set of three built over the Church Village bypass near Pontypridd in 2010 - at the cost of £190,000 to the taxpayer.

Rhondda Cynon Taf council had been criticised for not replacing the bridges, damaged in storms in January 2016.

It said the "ecology" has changed and the bridges do not need to be replaced.

The decision comes after monitoring by Natural Resources Wales (NRW), which said some mitigation was needed but that the bridges were no longer a "requirement".

Made of wire mesh tubes suspended between trees and tall poles, the crossings were put in place as part of wildlife protection plans ordered before the bypass was approved.

• Church Village bypass: Fallen £63k mouse bridge 'absurd'

• Bridges help dormice to cross Church Village bypass

Dormice are mainly found in the southern counties of England, the Lake District and mid Wales

John O'Connell, chief executive at the TaxPayers' Alliance, said serious questions needed to be asked about why £190,000 was spent in the first place on the bridges.

"It remains a mystery how this project was ever signed off in the first place, and critics of it have been proven right about the obscene waste," he said.

"At least we won't see good money thrown after bad, although that bad money equalled nearly two hundred thousand pounds of taxpayers' money."

A Rhondda Cynon Taf council spokesman said: "Without these bridges, funding to deliver this bypass would not have been secured.

"Further studies and monitoring have been undertaken which indicate changes in the ecology along the bypass and, as a result of these, there is no requirement to replace the two bridges concerned.

"However, ecological mitigation measures will be required and NRW have agreed to proposals in principle. The council is now preparing the necessary details for formal agreement."

The bypass opened more than 20 years after the need between Church Village, Llantwit Fardre and Tonteg was first identified to ease congestion on the A473.