£70,000 council work to shore up road underway but “more needed”

Work is taking place on a road to an Anglesey beauty spot after years of concern about a “crumbling wall”. Anglesey council is spending £70,000  rebuilding the failing retaining stone boundary alongside the winding route from Llangoed to Penmon.
But a local council claims the work doesn’t “go far enough” and won’t deal with all the issues on the stretch.
The construction is underway for several hundred yards on the approach to the Lleiniog beach car park. The work also runs parallel to the woodland footpath leading to the Norman Aberlleiniog Castle and strip of community council owned land.
The Llangoed and Penmon Community Council said it had  been asking for the work to be carried out by Anglesey County Council for some years. It had been “very concerned” amid fears over the potential collapse of the crumbling wall alongside on the busy road.
The lower parts of the route closer to the Lleiniog bridge and footpath, are also notorious for flooding and erosion.
Llangoed and Penmon Community Council clerk Alun Foulkes said it had been hoped that the work might include some widening and straightening out of some of the tighter bends, where in places traffic struggles to pass.
There was also disappointment that the work would not include an area of wall, close to the entrance to Lleiniog beach.
Anglesey County Council said this week, that the work was not a road widening scheme, and that construction of the new wall would only follow the same line as the old wall. The construction work is being carried by Alun Griffiths and contractors and started in  April, 2023.
The council says work is currently “on pause” due to seasonal bird nesting nearby, but is expected to end in October, 2023.
An Anglesey County Council spokesperson said: “The existing wall had deteriorated to an extent that it was no longer providing adequate support to the highway. The work is being done to rebuild the highway retaining wall. It follows the line of the old wall.
“It is being carreid out by  the Highways Service’s Term Contractor Alun Griffiths, with a sub-contractor on site. It  is costing  approximately £70,000.”
Penmon Community Council clerk, Mr Foulkes, said: “As a community council, we have been very concerned about the condition of the road and wall for many years. The road is very well used by locals and tourists, but it has long needed shoring up.
“We had requested the county council do the work as far back as 2020 and we wrote again in 2021. It was hoped they might widen the road in places, and straighten some of the sharp bends, we need the shoring up and wall work, but it doesn’t go far enough.
“They initially though the work might only take three weeks, but I think they soon realised it is a much bigger scheme than anticipated. The road is well used, tourists, and locals visit the beaches, the coastal path and Penmon Point, there has also been housing built, the school bus drops off children and it is a regular route for the fish farm . We just want to see safe passage for people.” ‌​‌​‌​​​‍‌​‌​​‌‌‌‍‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌‌​​

By BBC LDRS ‌​‌​‌​​​‍‌​‌​​‌‌‌‍‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌‌​​