Carolyn Thomas: The cost-of-living crisis is 12 years in the making, exacerbated by Brexit, the war in Ukraine and the Tory UK Government's policies, cutting public service funding, pushing productivity to an unrealistic limit and slashing social security payments. I would like to welcome recommendations 8 and 9 of this report. Having to apply for benefits and grants is confusing and messy. Residents hear...
Carolyn Thomas: I'd like to pay tribute to Jan Thomas, chief executive of the Flintshire Disability Forum, and TCC, Together Creating Communities, for campaigning for more Changing Places facilities across north-east Wales. They lobbied me when I was a Flintshire county councillor and, since then, I have questioned if a Changing Places toilet can be incorporated in a new public building or during the...
Carolyn Thomas: Trefnydd, I recently visited the new health education innovation centre at Wrexham Glyndŵr University, where they have now expanded to offer nursing and allied health degrees. This opens up a world of opportunities for students to become nurses, paramedics, physiotherapists, speech therapists—it's fantastic, the offer now—and also for existing health employees to retrain and reskill with...
Carolyn Thomas: Minister, on top of hearing that the modest additional funding for social care and schools will not cover the funding gap, capital funding continues to be cut as well, and there's no consequential for the high speed 2 line for our railway infrastructure, which is concerning. The UK Government also had an opportunity to invest in public services, to grow the economy that way, by investing in...
Carolyn Thomas: I'd like to thank the Local Government and Housing Committee staff and the Senedd's community liaison team for their work producing the report, organising evidence sessions and visits to engage directly with the community—that was really valuable—and also Travelling Ahead, who came with us as well. We discovered there aren't enough sites and there are long waiting lists for local...
Carolyn Thomas: I recently visited Glyndŵr University in Wrexham, which has expanded to now offer nursing and a variety of allied health degrees, plus retraining, in fantastic new spaces with the latest technology. The bursary in Wales for training also makes a huge difference. Nursing and other staff get such a hard time and morale is low, so we need to promote nursing and health as a career, and we need...
Carolyn Thomas: Thank you to Cefin for giving me a minute of his time. Community facilities are places of immeasurable friendship, kindness and confidence building that cannot be measured by GDP. They are community halls, pubs and playing fields. They are areas that should be protected for people and nature. Rhyl rugby club is an exemplar grass-roots facility, not only providing a place for hundreds of young...
Carolyn Thomas: Minister, I'm aware that Conwy County Borough Council has a rapid rehousing policy that has gone down well in dire circumstances, and also that councils are advising private tenants to stay in place if they get no-fault eviction notices while they try and help them with that funding you've just mentioned. And I must say, it's really twisted of Welsh Conservatives to blame Welsh Government,...
Carolyn Thomas: Will you take another intervention?
Carolyn Thomas: Would you take another intervention, from me? I understand that a levelling-up funding bid for railway infrastructure was declined by the UK Government and the authority has to put it back in again. But do you agree with me that local authority officers have said it's like going back 10 years now to move forward with this, so it's not really achieving very much, is it?
Carolyn Thomas: I'd also like to thank all the committee staff and all the organisations that took part in giving evidence for the report. I think the stand-out message is that sport should be a level playing field, but there are many hurdles that need to be overcome to achieve that. Deprivation is a formidable opposition in all aspects of governance, and sport is no exception to the rule. As was said by...
Carolyn Thomas: I remember in March 2020 sitting in the leader's office at Flintshire County Council, working out how we could send everyone to work from home and keep front-line services running. We were stunned and it was frightening for our workforce. Initially, I spent time collecting PPE of any type from playgroups, schools, businesses and volunteers who had been printing 3D face masks. Flintshire care...
Carolyn Thomas: I welcome that the Welsh Government's focus remains on sustainable public transport, despite significant real-terms funding cuts from the UK Government. The title of my petition to the Senedd three years ago was, 'Buses for people not profit', and as you said, it's a real social justice issue, ensuring that no-one is left behind, and that's the difference a Welsh Labour Government makes here....
Carolyn Thomas: Thank you, Mabon, for giving me a minute of your time for this important debate. Making our energy systems sustainable is one of the challenges of our time. Like the climate crisis, it's a challenge that reaches beyond our borders, therefore finding a solution must be an international task. Nuclear is both controversial and potentially dangerous, and it splits opinion. We have to be honest...
Carolyn Thomas: Across Wales there are approximately 90 residential park home sites, which are home to over 3,000 households. Research undertaken in 2016 on behalf of the Welsh Government showed that there was evidence of fuel poverty on these sites. This situation will have no doubt worsened in the current cost-of-living crisis. The majority of park home residents are elderly and disproportionately likely...
Carolyn Thomas: The draft budget is being set in some of the most challenging of times in recent memory for Welsh Government, and I welcome the way in which Welsh Government has continued to provide support throughout the cost-of-living crisis to those most in need, in spite of too often being handcuffed by Westminster. To be consistent, I'm going to make a plea for highway resilience funding to be put back...
Carolyn Thomas: Like many adverse childhood experiences, poverty impacts a young person in many ways, from their health and cognitive development to social and educational outcomes. The consequences of this can stay with a person all their lives. That's why it's so unforgivable that most vulnerable families have had to bear the brunt of Tory austerity measures over the last 12 years. The introduction of...
Carolyn Thomas: I'd like to start by thanking the Welsh Government for their continued recognition of the highly skilled workforce that we have in north Wales and for the investments being made in the health sector, including the medical school in Bangor. Medical radioisotopes can now be created by particle reactors, as was mentioned earlier, rather than nuclear reactors, and have been for some time in other...
Carolyn Thomas: I'd like to commend all that you do and the priority that's given to nature and biodiversity in Wales. It's really heart-warming. I'd just like to talk about nature-based solutions regarding flooding, the attenuation of water, and beavers. So, Eurasian beavers are native to Wales, to Britain, and have been living wild in Wales since 2013. I know somebody has introduced one quite locally to me...
Carolyn Thomas: Diolch. Can I declare also that I'm a member of Unite the Union, and I was formerly a member of the Communication Workers Union as a postal worker? Counsel General, two years ago, we were standing on our doorsteps clapping the workers, and now we see what the Tories really think, by bringing forward a Bill to sack them. As you said, the Bill is known as a 'sack the workers' Bill. It's really...
