Mike Hedges: Well, as anybody who listens to Radio Wales in the morning will be aware, there will be a traffic jam between anywhere around about junction 47 to junction 41. This is a sort of standard every morning. Satnavs, of course, are part of the problem, because they generally produce a 'via the M4' route if you are going almost anywhere east or west. Can I ask the Cabinet Secretary to undertake an...
Mike Hedges: Diolch, Deputy Presiding Officer. At the start of this Assembly, the Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee agreed that one of its priorities should be to scrutinise the Welsh Government’s progress on climate change mitigation because of its importance to the people of Wales. It was also agreed that the committee would produce an annual report on the Welsh Government’s...
Mike Hedges: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Can I thank Andrew Davies, Dai Lloyd, Julie Morgan, Caroline Jones, Neil Hamilton and the Cabinet Secretary for taking part in this debate? I think what I found most—how can I explain it—most beneficial was that it was not just a debate of the committee; it wasn't the committee having a debate in public when they normally have it in a committee...
Mike Hedges: A view from outside the area, but a view from somebody else who was on the Petitions Committee: one thing we know from the petition is that there are a very large number of people who want an A&E service at Withybush. A petition of 40,045 signatures is unprecedented. You actually need 5,000 signatures for the Petitions Committee to ask the Business Committee if we can have a debate on it. We...
Mike Hedges: Yes.
Mike Hedges: I know Lee Waters doesn't accept this, but improved roads can reduce emissions. If you've got to make a journey to a hospital, how else do you suggest that people make it to A&E—by cycle or walking to A&E? Pembrokeshire lives at risk—. Providing healthcare in rural areas is difficult, but it is not impossible. Other people do it. We also know that a similar petition regarding A&E in...
Mike Hedges: I agree entirely with that, and that takes a large part of the next bit of my speech. But the one thing I will say, before I finish, is that there are things that work. The hub-and-spoke model for renal services, which those areas in Hywel Dda and those areas in the rest of ABMU benefit from—I've talked about that for seven years, and the growth in hub-and-spoke service models in terms of...
Mike Hedges: Diolch, Llywydd. I welcome the Cabinet Secretary for Finance's statement and the draft budget. As austerity continues, the amount of money needed to run our public services to the level the public want is not being provided. I'm sure the Cabinet Secretary will agree with me that austerity is not an economic policy but a political direction of travel. The Conservatives at Westminster want to...
Mike Hedges: I speak as another member of the Petitions Committee who heard the evidence that was given to us. Can I also thank Beth Baldwin for her commitment and tenacity on this subject? She and her family have courageously strived to ensure that the tragedy experienced by their family should lead to improvements in awareness and identification of type 1 diabetes in children. Without her, we would not...
Mike Hedges: I would like to ask for two statements. One is a Government statement providing an update on Welsh Government support and progress with the digitisation programme across the whole of the Welsh public sector. The second one—I know we had a written statement from the Cabinet Secretary yesterday regarding Virgin Media closure and action being taken, but I would like to ask if we could have an...
Mike Hedges: Does the Cabinet Secretary accept that it is difficult to define preventative spend? For example, spending on home social care is preventative of needing residential care and hospital care. Expenditure on GPs is also preventative of hospital care. Would it not be better to define the expenditure as that which provides long-term good?
Mike Hedges: Well, we are the National Assembly for Wales, and so can I ask that any commemoration activities that are taking place are provided around Wales, not just in Cardiff Bay? I know this is our major place of work, but Wales is a lot bigger than just Cardiff Bay, and I also know that the Commission have staff in other parts of Wales, so please can I ask that other parts of Wales are considered,...
Mike Hedges: I'll be very brief. I don't know if the mud is safe. It has been tested, and we've had the results of that testing. What I do know is that the public are not assured that it is safe. EDF offered me a briefing three times last week. Each time I asked that the mud be made available to bona fide academics to re-test. Each time that request was ignored. I wish once again, in public, to request...
Mike Hedges: Can I first of all welcome the Welsh Government's statement? I'm sure no-one would disagree with the Welsh Government's commitment to help disabled people to fulfil their potential and achieve their ambitions and dreams—everybody should be able to do that. I agree that this is no easy task, because it requires us to work hard to remove barriers that get in the way of such ambitions. As the...
Mike Hedges: I would ask for two statements, the first—this will come as no surprise to the leader of the house—an update regarding staff in Swansea being made redundant by Virgin Media, this statement to include details of what the Welsh Government is doing to help the staff find alternative employment, and any update on the redundancy terms being offered. The second one—I would like to ask for a...
Mike Hedges: Since devolution, there has been an increase in our municipal recycling rate from 5 per cent to 64 per cent, which is phenomenal. It's driven by policy, but can I say, it's driven more by landfill tax, so it has put pressure on local authorities to ensure that they do recycle? Recycling is, of course, only one of the three Rs to reduce waste into landfill. The others are 'reduce' and 'reuse'...
Mike Hedges: I want to raise the position of European citizens living in Britain, married to a British citizen, with British children, who are afraid that they will have to leave the country, leaving behind their spouse and their children. It's not an academic question, it's not one based on possibility—it's one from one of my constituents who fears such an outcome. What discussion has the Counsel...
Mike Hedges: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'm delighted to open today's debate on the Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee's report on the challenges of meeting our need for low-carbon housing. I would like to thank all the current and previous members of the committee who contributed to our inquiry, the clerking team, the Research Service and those who gave evidence to us.
Mike Hedges: Our report addresses the reasons why we need energy-efficient homes, the costs of having inefficient housing and the steps needed to get us to where we need to be to meet our commitment on reducing emissions. Why do we need change? There are many reasons why we should improve the energy efficiency of our housing stock. The most pressing is the need to deliver on our legal obligations to...
Mike Hedges: Diolch. Can I thank David Melding for his comments this afternoon, for his contribution to the debate, and for his contribution during the committee? I can say that you will be missed in the committee when we discuss housing. He raises that quality assurance is important. People need to be assured that, if they are buying something, the quality that they've got is such that they are not...
