The English want the Queen, the Welsh want Aneurin Bevan and never the twain shall meet, at least not on a mile-long steel bridge across the Severn.
A spat has broken out across the Welsh border after Conservative councillors in South Gloucestershire voted to rename the Severn Bridge to mark the Queen’s platinum jubilee in 2022. They point out that she opened the bridge, which links England and Wales via the M48, in 1966.
Matthew Riddle, the Conservative councillor for Severn Vale, who proposed the motion, claimed that the issue was “purely a matter for the English” because the bridge landed in England on both sides of the estuary.
The Queen opened the bridge in 1966
PA/PA ARCHIVE
Welsh residents and politicians disagreed and said that if a name change must happen then it