The final decision on the Welsh Govenemnt’s deal for paying for the Cleddau Bridge will be taken by the council’s cabinet and senior officers – as it was announced that the tolls could potentially return in the future.

There had been a call for the final sign off to come back before full council as the negotiations on how much Pembrokeshire County Council will receive to maintain the bridge continue.

An announcement on scrapping the bridge’s 75p each way from April 2019 was made in October when cabinet member for economic development, leisure, culture and tourism, Cllr Paul Miller, said “good progress” had been made.

At full council of Thursday (December 13) Clr. Miller added: “This is a negotiation and we’re very close to reaching agreement with Welsh Government but we’re not there yet.”

He said that the current offer did not “ensure the financial viability in terms of future maintenance.”

Full council were asked to give delegated authority to the director of resources, head of infrastructure and cabinet members for regeneration and finance continue negotiation and accept a package that “satisfies” the future maintenance and replacement needs.

A deal would not include permanent removal of tolls if the government funding was only for a specified period meaning the option to reinstate them would remain.

Clr. Michael John said that the final offer should come back to full council before it is agreed “given the importance to the Pembrokeshire people.”

Clr. Miller urged councillors not to agree to that in order to avoid delaying the process and “redundancy pay-off for staff”, adding that any decision would be subject to call-in procedures.

Concerns were also raised about the removal of the toll booths resulting in the the bridge becoming a “race track” and how closures to high sided vehicles will be enforced.

Head of highways and construction Darren Thomas said the “plaza” in its current form would likely be removed and discussions from an “engineering point of view” for warnings and closures were underway.

Clr. Rob Summons asked if the final package did not ‘future proof’ the bridge could the tolls return?

“Yes,” said Clr. Miller. He added they had accepted the £3m figure but would not fund the £1.5million surplus taken by the council from tolls.

The ideal solution would be to ‘trunk’ the entire stretch of road from Waterloo Bridge to Johnston, Clr. Jamie Adams said.

Negotiations will continue and delegated powers were agreed.