THE Welsh Government has lost nearly £600,000 selling properties it had bought up for the now-scrapped M4 relief road, a Senedd member has alleged.

The government spent £9.7 million buying up properties along the proposed route of the motorway when the project was still live.

But sales of some of those properties have proved far from lucrative since the so-called Black Route highway was abandoned, according to Conservative MS Natasha Asghar.

The relief road plan, to build a new stretch of motorway bypassing Newport to the south, spent years in the pipeline but was eventually scrapped by Mark Drakeford within six months of him being appointed as first minister.

His call proved controversial at the time - while environmental groups praised the decision to preserve the Gwent Levels wetlands, some business leaders who backed the plans felt the move would consign the Newport area's economy to a future blighted by traffic problems.

Mr Drakeford set up a special commission to find alternatives to the relief road, but its recommendations for a sweeping overhaul of rail and other public transport services are generally yet to be realised.

Previous figures showed the Welsh Government spent £9.7 million on making Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs) on properties and land outside Newport between the time it first backed the Black Route plan in 2014 and the day Mr Drakeford cancelled the project.

Ms Asghar said the government is now losing money on sales of those properties.

“I recently asked for a list of the land and properties bought by the Welsh Government to facilitate the building of the M4 relief road," she said.

“In reply, I was told 30 properties were bought at a cost to the taxpayers of over £15 million.

“It is now more than three years since the M4 relief road project was scrapped.

“Since then, only seven of those properties acquired have been sold - three at a profit of £334,000. The other four were sold at a loss of a staggering £925,765."

The Conservative MS for South Wales East said the government had shown "scandalous disregard for obtaining the best value for taxpayers' money" and urged ministers to "come clean and explain the huge loss".

In response, government minister Lesley Griffiths said the plan for any such property was "clear".

"When it's no longer required - and obviously some of the properties that you referred to will no longer be required for the purpose that you set out - will be first offered to other departments and then our public sector partners before being marketed commercially," she told Ms Asghar.

"That does ensure we are delivering the best possible value against all policy areas."

In total, some £15.2 million was spent on CPOs linked to the relief road project, but the remainder of that money was spent pre-devolution by the Conservative government then in power in Westminster.