Transport

Controversial Welsh transport minister to leave post

Lee Waters has announced he is to stand down from his Welsh Government transport role once the new First Minister is appointed in two weeks time.

Published

2 months ago

4th March 2024

Editor

Mr Waters was behind some of the more controversial transport decisions of recent years, including stopping road building schemes and the introduction of default 20mph zones.

He has had a transport brief in Welsh Government since 2018, initially as Deputy Minister for Economy and Transport and then subsequently as Deputy Minister for Climate Change, which included transport from 2021.

Before becoming a Member of Senedd, Mr Waters ran the sustainable transport charity Sustrans Cymru where he led the campaign for the Active Travel Act.

As well as standing down from his ministerial role, Mr Waters has also stated that he would be deleting his X account (formally twitter) after being inundated with “malign comments for even the most innocuous posts”.

Over the last 15 years I’ve spent far too much time on Twitter. It stopped being fun a while ago but I now get a pile of malign comments for even the most innocuous posts.

When I leave my transport role in a fortnight I’ll be deleting my account.

Elon can shove it up his X— Lee Waters MS (@Amanwy) March 4, 2024

Responding to the news, Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies MS, said: “Motorists and business owners across Wales will breathe a sigh of relief at this news.

“The Deputy Minister’s time in post has been characterised by one anti-motorist policy after another, slowing Wales down and doing serious damage to our economy.

“It’s time to scrap the road building ban, scrap the 20mph speed limit, and implement a transport policy that gets Wales moving.”