Suzy Davies: Who on earth are the millionaires, then?
Suzy Davies: Thank you, Mike. I call on the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children to reply to the debate.
Suzy Davies: Thank you very much, and that brings today’s proceedings to a close.
Suzy Davies: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Well, talking about making good on promises, leader of the house, it’s about nine months now since the issue of woodchip fires, and the illegal dumping of woodchip, was raised in this Chamber. It’s an issue that particularly affects my region. In all fairness, the Cabinet Secretary said that she was taking this seriously, in recognising the insufficiency of both...
Suzy Davies: Thank you very much, Cabinet Secretary, for the statement today. I think this review was long overdue. I’m quite pleased to see it was broader than I actually anticipated originally. So, I do thank you for that. My first question was going to be ‘When can we expect to see the report?’ but I can see that it did arrive within an hour of Plenary. Being 200 pages long, I hope you will give...
Suzy Davies: It’s just over four months, actually, since Members from all sides of the Senedd backed my legislative proposals to receive age-appropriate lifesaving skills as part of their education—as learners, not as Assembly Members. I was pleased, Cabinet Secretary, that actually you were one of the Assembly Members in the previous Assembly who supported my statement of opinion on broadly the same...
Suzy Davies: I think there has been a change of officials in the particular area you talk about in Bridgend recently, so hopefully we will see some improvement. But I wanted to ask you about something else. You’ve previously acknowledged the role that Wales’s businesses can play in promoting the Welsh language and, indeed, driving the call for skills, actually, and we often speak positively in this...
Suzy Davies: I’m going to disappoint you there, Bethan—I’m not going to start off talking about Ofcom. I won’t have time in my short submission, I’m afraid. I did want to stress, actually, to start with—while thanking the committee and the staff for their work on this—that it is a very innovative committee, the one that we are sitting on now. I just wanted to, as I said, talk about that for...
Suzy Davies: Thank you very much for the statement and for the commitments that are in it. I appreciate that we’re talking primarily about structural change, but the purpose of the structural change is to improve opportunities for learning, and learning ready for a Wales that will be taking part in a global competition, if you like, as well as promoting the local economy. If the Welsh Government’s...
Suzy Davies: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. Good afternoon, Cabinet Secretary. Under the Historic Environment (Wales) Act 2016, from 30 May this year, local authorities can register a local land charge to protect their position in the recovery of costs and interest for emergency repairs to listed buildings. Obviously, I have the Swansea Palace Theatre in mind, which has benefited from that in the past, but...
Suzy Davies: Thank you for that answer, and I hope that the confidence is justified. It might be worth, six months down the line, asking whether they’ve decided to use those powers on the basis that they’ve got them and that they are there for their protection. Moving now to the national library, obviously, it’s got an expanding role at the moment, taking on the BBC archive and helping this...
Suzy Davies: Thank you very much for that answer. I’ll see what happens this time next year. Finally, the Year of Legends, of course, has hopefully sparked great interest in Wales as a film and TV location. I’m already aware of their back catalogue, so I don’t particularly want to hear about that, but I am keen to know what Welsh Government is doing to support the future for the two main film...
Suzy Davies: Can I thank the committee? Obviously, I’m not a member of the committee, but I thought this was a really focused and forthright piece of work, so I’m not surprised it’s been influential already. I thank the Cabinet Secretary as well, because judging by the quoted evidence in the report, you certainly took a very open and responsive approach to the evidence that was heard there. With...
Suzy Davies: 9. Will the Cabinet Secretary outline the expectations placed on local authorities as a result of the local air quality management in Wales guidance? OAQ(5)0155(ERA)
Suzy Davies: 7. Will the Cabinet Secretary provide details of the transitional arrangements for Communities First? OAQ(5)0156(CC)
Suzy Davies: Good afternoon, Cabinet Secretary. Natural Resources Wales, of course, have said that this new study is to try and deal with unanswered questions from the 2012 study. When I asked the First Minister about cockle deaths back in February, he said that investigations into cockle mortality in the Burry Inlet were continuing and that a progress review of Welsh Government’s investigation would be...
Suzy Davies: Thank you for that very helpful answer, actually. It was 15 June, I think, actually, that you issued the guidance, and in that guidance there’s an obligation on local authorities to plan for the long term and prevent problems from getting worse or arising in the first place. This is before your letter, but just four days later on 19 June, Swansea council’s cabinet member for the...
Suzy Davies: Cabinet Secretary, I don’t know whether you’ve heard of an organisation called Faith in Families. They’re a local Swansea-based organisation—
Suzy Davies: I’m very sorry.
Suzy Davies: Thank you very much. I’ll go back to Faith in Families. It’s an organisation based in Swansea that concentrates on early intervention with families that are vulnerable. Thanks to Communities First, actually, they’ve been able to redevelop three of their family centres. Since the announcement that Communities First is going, they’re in very uncertain circumstances, shall I say, because...
