£400,000 will be put towards making the Pontybat junction safer, it has been announced.

The £400,000 will allow the Welsh Government to progress the design and implementation of initial safety measures related to the junction, which is on the A470 near Bronllys.

“Longer term solutions will be developed during a monitoring period where the data collected will be used to inform those solutions,” the Budget reads.

Powys County Councillor Tom Colbert (Bronllys and Felin-fach), who has been campaigning for safety measures at the junction for years, welcomed the funding.

“Pontybat junction has been a serious safety concern for far too long, and it's a huge relief to know that safety measures will be implemented with financial backing,” he said.

“A big thank you to Jane Dodds MS, for her hard work and dedication in securing this funding.”

The junction has been the source of countless safety campaigns in recent years following a number of road traffic collisions. The site has been described as an “accident hotspot,” with local motorists and residents often sharing their experiences of near misses involving ambulances and trucks.

A scheme to install a roundabout to improve the junction was scrapped by the Welsh Government two years ago.

Just last year, Transport Secretary Ken Skates said officials had reviewed personal injury collisions over the previous three years at the junction, but noted the incidents had “all been different in nature” and there was “no defining trend.” The Road Reviews Panel therefore decided that a safety scheme for the junction should not proceed, stating that the case for change was “weak.”

Debates on safety have focused on whether the junction can be defined as a “collision cluster site,” with government analysis often at odds with anecdotal evidence from local people.

Politicians from across the political spectrum have raised concerns about the safety of the junction over recent years.