THE Conservatives have accused Ken Skates of ‘misleading’ assembly members and the wider public over delays to a public inquiry into the M4 relief road.

The inquiry was due to start on November 1 but has now been delayed until March 2017, with economy secretary Mr Skates placing the blame for the delay squarely at the feet of the UK Government’s Department for Transport, who recently introduced a revised way of forecasting growth in traffic.

Mr Skates said this was done with insufficient notice given to the Welsh Government beforehand.

The Labour minister called it ‘hugely disappointing’ that amendments to their traffic forecasting were given just three days before they were introduced. This, he said, forced ‘this regrettable delay to the start date of the public inquiry’.

But the Welsh Conservatives say an official letter from the Department for Transport proves that Welsh ministers have been aware of the changes – and significantly engaged in the process – since it was first announced in December 2014.

The letter, states that plans to update Tempro, the new traffic forecasting system, in 2016 were first made public at the end of 2014, followed by an engagement event in March 2015. 

In early 2016, it adds, assembly officials were provided with an indicative timetable for the release of Tempro 7, at a periodic engagement event between the Department of Transport, Transport Scotland, the Welsh Government and the Northern Ireland Department for Infrastructure.

The letter reads: “A high-level overview of national results (not specific to Wales) was presented three weeks before publication, during a general engagement event on a professional forum. This event was attended by Welsh Government officials.

“The full dataset was published on 28th July 2016.”

The Welsh Conservatives have since tabled an urgent question over the matter and will demand that the cabinet secretary appears in front of AMs next week to clarify his comments.

South Wales East AM Mohammad Asghar, said: “It is becoming clear that the cabinet secretary’s statement was misleading and we now know that there was significant engagement between the governments over many months.

“It is deeply regrettable, therefore, that instead of acknowledging responsibility for yet another delay to this project, that the Welsh Government is seeking to lay the blame elsewhere.”

A Welsh Government spokesman said: “We stand by our previous comments. The Department for Transport gave us no prior indication of the impact that their methodology changes would have on Welsh Government projects including the M4 corridor around Newport.” 

He added: “The Department for Transport’s decision not to share base data with us until three days before publication is the direct cause of the delay to the public inquiry.” 

The inquiry, expected to last up to five months, will start by March 31, 2017.