'TIS the season for Christmas lights events around Gwent, but in Newport today - Thursday - there's another big switch-on happening.

The average speed cameras on the M4 - put up in early 2021 - will finally be activated and start catching drivers travelling at more than 50mph.

Originally devised as a way to improve traffic flow either side of the Brynglas Tunnels, the cameras have more recently been marketed as an environmental scheme that will improve air quality along this part of the M4 corridor.

"We need to act now to make Wales a safe place to live with clean air for everyone," said Lee Waters, the Welsh Government's deputy minister for climate change.

A series of delays to the switch-on had previously been blamed on new IT systems and staffing shortages.

The imposition of an average speed zone is something of a throwback to several years ago, when the widening of the motorway west of Newport meant there was a long stretch of M4 punctuated by the distinctive yellow cameras overhead.

When that project was completed, they were eventually replaced by a variable speed limit - cameras on the back of overhead gantries, each of which could be set independently to show a different maximum speed.

But when Mark Drakeford cancelled the M4 relief road project, the expert commission he set up to find alternatives to a Newport bypass said in 2019 the variable speed cameras "often lead to breakdown of flow on the M4 around Newport, especially on the approaches to the Brynglas tunnels".

The commission opted for reinstating the average speed zone, which would encourage drivers to move at a steady 50mph between the Tredegar Park and Coldra junctions, but and although those cameras were installed shortly afterwards, frequent enquiries by the Argus in 2021 and 2022 revealed they had not been switched on.

It wasn't until earlier this month that the Welsh Government announced a switch-on date of November 17, some 20 months after the commission put forward the idea as a "fast-track" method of improving traffic flow on the M4 in Newport.

The government claims the 50mph zone has already had a positive effect on air quality, despite some previous criticism their figures did not take into account the lower traffic volumes on the roads during periods of Covid lockdowns.

Today, Mr Waters said ministers had made "significant progress in bringing emissions levels down in recent years, but we now have to go further and faster".

He added: "We know that slower speed limits are not a popular choice, but we need to do things differently and be bold if we are to stand a chance of tackling climate change."

Superintendent Michael Richards, of Gwent Police, said: "The environmental 50mph speed limits are playing an important part in tackling pollution on some of Wales’ most polluted roads, helping Wales and its communities build a cleaner, safer and healthier future.

"All four Welsh forces are supporting the enforcement of these speed limits."