Alun Davies: I'm grateful to the Plaid Cymru spokesperson for her kind words at the beginning of our new relationship. I'm not sure that I've ever considered myself as someone who has any sort of style in any way. I may be wrong. The tone I want to adopt in the discussions that I've already started with councillors and council leaders across the country is a tone of respect towards councillors and...
Alun Davies: I discussed finance matters, including the funding formula, with local government at the finance sub-group meeting on 14 December. The next meeting of the group is on 24 January.
Alun Davies: This is a matter for Beaumaris Town Council.
Alun Davies: Following my appointment, I am considering the approach to local government reform. Proposals will be set out in a local government Bill in due course.
Alun Davies: I discussed finance matters, including the funding formula, with local government at the finance sub-group meeting on 14 December. The next meeting of the group is on 24 January.
Alun Davies: The third sector is essential in delivering enhanced public services and I value greatly the positive impact this has. There are over 33,000 third sector organisations providing services in every sphere of life in Wales from direct delivery of public service contracts to services complementary to public sector provision.
Alun Davies: In 2017-18, we have provided £199,161 in core funding for Swansea Council for Voluntary Services to help local organisations with fundraising, good governance and volunteering. The Community Facilities Programme has committed £1.613 million in Swansea for capital projects, including enabling the Lifepoint Centre to improve its provision for homeless people.
Alun Davies: I look forward to the leader of the opposition's letter coming to me this week or next week with the changes he proposes to the formula. [Interruption.] I'll put it in the Library, with his permission. But I gave him the opportunity there to defend local government and to say how important local government was. What he did was to attack the decisions of local government and to attack the...
Alun Davies: I'm grateful to you, Presiding Officer. I am grateful to all Members who have taken time to contribute to the debate this afternoon. It's always important to consider how we structure the funding and financing of local government, and also the relative priority given to local government within the overall Welsh budget. Can I just say this? There is not simply respect and mutual respect for...
Alun Davies: I am familiar with that point. Let me say this: it's been a success because local government and Welsh Government have worked together. I think, in many ways, this has demonstrated the power of a partnership that is a real partnership working together, both in terms of funding but also in working together to look for different solutions to ensure that we do continue to meet the recycling...
Alun Davies: Of course.
Alun Davies: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. I'd like to continue in the same tone and approach that the Cabinet Secretary for Finance has adopted over the debates this afternoon in rooting our budget for local government in our values, our principles, where we stand and the approach that we wish to take. Presiding Officer, this is a budget that is rooted in a belief in local government. It is rooted in the...
Alun Davies: I am out of time. With the indulgence of the Deputy Presiding Officer—
Alun Davies: The opening speech I made, the opening remarks I made, about the Valleys taskforce were that this is shaping the work of the whole of the Welsh Government, so we're seeing contributions, and the point I was going to close on was the point made by Vikki Howells in terms of the breadth of ideas from Mountain Ash, the need for our plans to be rooted in sustainability and sustainable jobs, and...
Alun Davies: I’m grateful to you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I’m also grateful to all the Members who’ve taken part in the debate this afternoon. I think the number of Members wishing to play a part in the debate and the contributions we’ve heard demonstrate the importance of the Government bringing forward these debates to enable us to have a conversation here in the National Assembly about the...
Alun Davies: The plan that we published last summer wasn't a plan for the Valleys, but a plan from the Valleys. It was designed and published as a consequence of conversations that we'd had with people across the whole of the Valleys region. We set clear objectives that were defined by the conversations that we'd had with people. We published a delivery plan in November that sought then to give clear...
Alun Davies: I'm grateful to you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Members will be aware that I agreed to bring forward this debate following question sessions before Christmas, when Members sought the opportunity to have a wider and deeper conversation about the Valleys taskforce and the work that the taskforce was leading and undertaking. I'm grateful to you, Deputy Presiding Officer, for allowing us to table...
Alun Davies: Myself and the Member for Merthyr Tydfil represent very similar communities in the Heads of the Valleys, and I saw her response to the Valley Cops tv programme. I shared many of your frustrations. Sometimes, programme makers' desire to create drama on our screens means that they don't always represent the reality of life in our communities, wherever they happen to be. I think that's certainly...
Alun Davies: I'm not sure where I'm going to start, Deputy Presiding Officer, but let me start with his final question, again—I seem to have fallen into a habit of doing so. My vision is very, very clear: I think that policing should be devolved to the National Assembly, alongside justice policy, within a distinct Welsh legal jurisdiction, which will provide us with the clarity and the ability to both...
Alun Davies: I'll start by thanking the Plaid Cymru spokesman for her very warm words at the beginning of her statement. I must say, I think there's probably a fair degree of agreement across the Chamber on these matters. I will start by answering your final question first, if you don't mind. I certainly do endorse and give a reply that reinforces my commitment to the points that were made by Carl...
