Gareth Bennett: Thanks to the Conservatives for bringing today's debate. We broadly support what they're calling for today. The motion itself is a little vague, but it does refer us to their White Paper, 'Liveable Cities'. The White Paper is interesting and it focuses on, among other things, the nitty-gritty areas of transport and housing, to which I think they should have also added the related issue of...
Gareth Bennett: Yes, the point was made by Simon Thomas earlier, and I would agree that the biggest danger is caused by the cars. I think the point I'm making is that the three different things don't really mix at all. Cars, cycles, pedestrians, the difficulty is trying to find a viable way of cyclists and pedestrians becoming more active and using that mode of transport without everything interfering with...
Gareth Bennett: Diolch, Llywydd, and thanks to everyone who contributed to what turned out to be a fairly lively debate. It warmed up a bit at the end, but it was interesting all the way through, I must stress that. Michelle Brown opened the debate. She talked about the lack of relevant information for prospective students when they're going through the school system and the lack of information regarding...
Gareth Bennett: How is Welsh Government funding currently being used to support the reduction of homelessness?
Gareth Bennett: Thanks to the Minister for her statement today, and thanks also for the briefing earlier on. As you mentioned, we, UKIP, have been supportive of this kind of move. We did cover the issue of letting agency fees in one of our own debates last year, so it's an area where we are sympathetic to the issues faced by tenants in the private rented sector. On that occasion, all three opposition parties...
Gareth Bennett: Diolch, Llywydd. I was interested in some of your remarks earlier, Minister, in response to Janet Finch-Saunders's contribution, particularly when—[Interruption.]—particularly when you talked about empowering the citizens and how the key issue facing local government is how to empower citizens, and you also said that it is the people who own the country, which are very noble sentiments....
Gareth Bennett: Right. I think that we may accept the difficulty of actually getting local councils run by the Labour Party, which do well under first-past-the-post, actually going towards a different system. I think you may actually recognise that that may be a problem. But we will move on. Another area where we have something of a democratic deficit in Wales is in the planning system. Many local...
Gareth Bennett: Diversity is something that we are about to explore on the local government committee, so we will, hopefully, feed into that process, and that is something that does concern us. You gave an interesting answer about the local referendum issue, citing the example of California, so I'm encouraged by that. Given your interest in these ideas and these different forms of democracy—representative...
Gareth Bennett: Formally.
Gareth Bennett: Thanks to the committee Chairman for bringing today's debate and also to the people who took part in the inquiry, including the homeless people who took the time to recount their personal experiences to us, which, as Bethan Sayed mentioned, was very illuminating—probably the most illuminating part of the inquiry. One factor that became clear to me during this interaction was this intimate...
Gareth Bennett: Thanks to the Minister for today's statement. I agree with the sentiments underlying the statement. The majority of households that have pets have dogs, and there are several issues over the welfare of dogs, one obvious one being: in today's society, are they getting enough exercise and general stimulation? These days, a lot of households contain couples who are both out working during the...
Gareth Bennett: 1. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on capital investment in South Wales Central? OAQ52360
Gareth Bennett: Thanks for the answer. The Minister will be aware of the project to reopen the Rhondda tunnel as a footpath and cycle path. Following a recent report by Balfour Beatty, there has been an assessment that 95 per cent of the tunnel is in a very good condition. Now, the Highways Agency is responsible for the safety of the tunnel but isn't allowed to reopen the tunnel. Would the Welsh Government...
Gareth Bennett: Diolch, Llywydd. Thanks to Simon and the others for bringing today's debate, and I formally move our amendment. We do seem to have talked about clean air quite a lot lately in the Chamber, but, of course, the air quality is not signally getting any better, so I suppose it's still a pertinent issue, so we can talk about it again. And there are developments, as Simon Thomas made clear, in...
Gareth Bennett: Looking at the issues, traffic congestion, of course, is a major issue. Schools have become bigger and less local, and more children are in families where both parents work most days, so we now have large numbers of parents driving their kids to school, and the school run is a major component of the traffic problem at rush hours, as can be evidenced by the noticeably less traffic at these...
Gareth Bennett: Thanks to the Minister for her statement and for the announcement of the new funding. I appreciate that, to a large extent, housing, health and social care are all interconnected and they need to be considered together, which is the basic thrust of today's statement. So, we do appreciate that sentiment, and we acknowledge the need for different departments to work together to achieve these...
Gareth Bennett: Thanks to Mick Antoniw for bringing today's debate. We are covering a lot of similar areas to what we covered in the individual Member's debate, which Mick was also involved in, with other people, so I won't reiterate everything I said then—most of the points are still valid. In UKIP we broadly agree with the principle of severely restricting leasehold tenure in future new builds, which is...
Gareth Bennett: Thanks to the committee Chairman for bring today's debate. A lot of issues have been raised. Bethan has a lot more knowledge than me on the actual opencast practices. I'd like to address something that Lynne Neagle raised, which was the issue of why it has taken so long to get from a petition in 2013 to actually debating it here in the Chamber. I don't have all the answers. I was a member...
Gareth Bennett: 5. Will the First Minister make a statement on green-belt developments in South Wales Central? OAQ52496
Gareth Bennett: Yes, thanks for that answer. We've had recent press reports that the leader of Cardiff council, Huw Thomas, wants to merge with the Vale of Glamorgan Council, principally so Cardiff can build more houses on land in the Vale. We've already had housing developments infringing on the green belt and we're losing prime agricultural land due to this. Do you agree, First Minister, that Cardiff...
