15/04/2016 BBC Wales Today

The Welsh Conservatives say that raising the speed limit from 70

to 80 miles per hour on the M4 and A55 could help motorists,

They'd look to consult on the change, if they won

The idea's had a mixed response from other political parties and one

road safety charity is warning it could lead to more deaths.

They are two of the country's busiest roads.

The M4 in the South and the A55 in North Wales.

If the Welsh Conservatives are in government after May the 5th

Above the M4 this morning Andrew R.T. Davies,

the party leader, said it was time to look

at the benefits of raising the speed limit on both roads to 80mph.

The Welsh Tories say this proposal is about getting the economy moving.

It would only apply to cars and light vehicles and

it's an idea welcomed at the Castle Hotel in Conwy.

The owner heads up the North Wales Tourism Organisation and says

the quicker people can get here, the more they are likely to come.

In theory it's a good idea in terms of saving people some time,

potentially travelling from our main catchment areas of the north-west

Bearing in mind the underlying problems of the A55 in terms

of the volume of traffic, the biggest complaint we get

is that they are stuck in queues, not able to do 80mph.

Whoever is in government in Cardiff Bay after the Assembly

election will receive new powers to control the speed limits.

However, it is not certain when those powers will arrive.

But like many things to do with the M4 and the A55,

UK Government ministers announced consultation on raising the motorway

speed limit to 80 five years ago and it didn't arrive.

There was criticism from road safety groups then and there

The charity Brake says evidence from that earlier consultation

suggested an increase in the speed limit could potentially lead to 25

more deaths and 100 more serious injuries every year.

They also damage the environment and economy.

Plaid Cymru say the real issue with these two roads

The Welsh Liberal Democrats say they are taking this with a pinch

of salt as nothing came from a similar consultation

Welsh Labour say UK Government ministers scrapped similar plans

over safety concerns and Ukip say they agree with the plans

in principle but wonder how they will work in practice

Some may argue it is already a struggle for motorists to reach

the current speed limit on the country's two busiest roads.

Others may say the speed limit hasn't kept pace with other motoring

A skip hire company from Llanelli has been fined more than ?200,000

for illegally dumping waste on farmland.

The owners of Sospan Skips admitted environmental charges last year.

Natural Resources Wales says this is one of the biggest fines handed

Police are appealing for witnesses after a vehicle was driven

into the side of a bank in Prestatyn yesterday afternoon

It happened at the Barclays Bank on the High Street,

The First Minister blamed funding cuts from Westminster when he faced

hostile questions from a television audience about Labour's

In tonight's Ask the Leader debate in Llangollen, he also stressed

the importance of testing in schools as he defended

Here's our political editor, Nick Servini.

This was always going to be dominated by scrutiny of Labour's

record in power as Carwyn Jones became the last of the leaders

In reference to well-documented problems facing health services

in recent years the first question pulled no punches.

Our budget was cut by 10% by the Conservative Government.

Despite that, we have spent more on health than ever before.

42% of our budget at the start in 2011 of this term.

2016, 46% of our budget is spent on health.

The health service is staffed by fantastic people -

doctors, nurses and health professionals, and they

Carwyn Jones went on to say that the Government took

action when it needed to, such as putting the main health

board in North Wales, Betsi Cadwaladr, into special measures.

The issue of education also came up repeatedly, including reference

to a quote from a former minister who said the Welsh Government may

Carwyn Jones responded by pointing to literacy and numeracy tests that

One audience member described that testing as an interruption to real

I want to know how my child is doing at seven, how my child

That means having a testing system where not just parents can compare,

but teachers can compare where their children are.

I think it's important for us to understand

It is not the be all and end all, I understand that.

But there have to be benchmarks against which we can measure

Elsewhere, Carwyn Jones defended his record on helping

North Wales by pointing to four of his ministers representing

It will soon be up to all of us whether they and him remain

Ukip has published its Assembly election manifesto, with promises

to bring back grammar schools and hold elections

The party says it'll concentrate on devolved issues in

the run-up to polling day, not on immigration and the EU.

Ukip Wales' leader Nathan Gill said the party was "united",

Emotions are running high because we do know that we will make

a breakthrough this time round and so people

want to be part of that breakthrough.

We have got a united team, we've got a fantastic manifesto,

we know what we want to achieve as a group of elected AMs.

We will unite behind that and we will succeed.

The first Welsh boxer has made it through to the Olympic Games in Rio.

Joe Cordina from Cardiff beat Ireland's David Joyce

on points in the 60 kilogram category in the semi final

of the European Qualifiers in Turkey.

He's the fourth Welsh athlete to qualify for Team GB.

The last six years of my life, I have been heading

I tried to go for London but I was a bit inexperienced and young.

So I thank everyone back home and people around the world that

have been following my progress and showing their love and support.

Rugby and in the Pro 12 tonight the Ospreys took on Treviso

The home side cruised to a bonus point victory,

Let's see what the weather has in store.

Benny, how is it looking for the weekend?

Much colder through tonight and into the weekend. A of sunshine and

showers tomorrow but a better day on Sunday. All thanks to this cold

arctic air coming in from the North. I send a back to a westerly flow.

Tonight we have a band of rain which is pushing southland eastwards,

falling as snow on higher ground. Clearing part of Gwynedd and

Anglesey by early tomorrow morning where we could see problems with ice

and frost. In the early hours of tomorrow morning that France will

clear and behind it clear skies and brighter as we go through Saturday

but we have got that northerly wind taking the edge off the

temperatures. First thing tomorrow try and brighter further north and

west but that front clearing south and eastwards. It will brighten up

as most of us will see sunshine but also the brisk winds continuing

through the day. For the rest of Britain we have that weather front

across southern parts of England pushing south and eastwards. Some

snow showers in Scotland but the further west you are it is dry and

brighter. Temperatures below the average for the time of year. We

have some sunshine so not feeling too bad if you can find shelter from

the breeze. A few isolated showers along parts of the Southeast as we

going to tomorrow afternoon. The bulk of the country's drive. The

winds will ease as we going to tomorrow night. We will see

widespread frost forming into the early hours of Sunday morning and

those temperatures will dip down to minus one Celsius so it will be a

chilly night. Sunday is the better day. The winds change to a westerly

direction and we have sunshine. The odd isolated shower but most of us

getting away with a fine day is still temperatures not quite where

they should be. The settled theme will continue into the start of next

week but still those temperatures cooler than they should be for

April. We can look forward to some sunshine by the middle of next week.

We're back at 5:20pm tomorrow evening.

From all of us here, good night and have a good weekend.