Lee Waters: I have allocated £15.4 million to local authorities to introduce measures to improve safety and conditions for sustainable and active travel modes and to achieve sustained changes in future travel behaviour. Newport County Council will receive £600,000 of this.
Lee Waters: [Inaudible.]—to scale up public transport, Llywydd, the safety and well-being of all staff and passengers remains our priority. On 8 July, we updated our guidance for operators, helping them to understand how to provide safer workplaces and services for workers and passengers.
Lee Waters: Well, thank you for that. I acknowledge that Lynne Neagle has been calling for this move for some time, but as the First Minister has set out in some detail earlier, these are difficult judgments and nuanced judgments with a balance of risks. We've been liaising closely with the trade unions, with the operators and with equality groups to work through the detail of this and how to make it...
Lee Waters: Well, certainly we're interested in innovations and we'll be keen to look in detail at this example, and there are more low-tech innovations closer to home that have been developed. Edwards Coaches, for example, have been experimenting with plastic shields on their buses to try and get more passengers safely on them. And we're looking at all of these. As ever, the economics of the bus...
Lee Waters: Yes, indeed. We have been funding Swansea Council, Llywydd, to develop, with the region, a package of proposals to develop a south Wales metro. We have funded that to the tune of some £2 million in the last few years, and we're now looking to accelerate that by involving Transport for Wales to take forward the next stage.
Lee Waters: Well, I share the Member's interest in getting this proposal accelerated. I've had a long interest in developing a Swansea bay metro and I am frustrated at the progress to date. It's one the reasons why we've asked Transport for Wales, as part of the remit letter, to take a role in developing these proposals forward. There has, as I say, been work going on within the region by the local...
Lee Waters: Well, I think, seeing a parkway at Felindre as an active travel measure is a bit of a stretch, Llywydd, but, certainly, as part of a broader network, it would have a benefit, and we've said that all along. What we don't want is to create a piece of infrastructure that is not linked in to a broader network. And certainly, Alun Cairns, when he was Welsh Secretary, was very keen in playing...
Lee Waters: We've put in place significant packages of financial support for bus and rail operators, as well as funding local authorities to introduce measures to improve safety and conditions for sustainable and active modes.
Lee Waters: I think David Melding rightly identifies the difficulty we face here. The amount of public funding going into bus operators has not reduced. What obviously has reduced, as passengers have stayed away from public transport, is the so-called farebox element of their business model, and that model has come under an immense strain in the face of the coronavirus. Now, we have worked very closely...
Lee Waters: Diolch, Llywydd. Eighty children were killed or seriously injured in Wales in the last year that we have figures for—80 children, 80 families whose lives will never be the same again. Whilst we have made progress on reducing deaths on our roads in the 21 years of devolution, despite our considerable efforts, there are still 4,000 accidents that result in injuries every year in Wales. The...
Lee Waters: Diolch, Llywydd, and can I thank Members for that thoughtful discussion? I think, with one exception, there was support in principle for the proposal we've brought forward this afternoon. But Members are right, it's the job of the Senedd now to scrutinise the detail of this, to stress-test it, to kick the tyres, if you like, to make sure that this is as strong as it can be, and I'm certainly...
Lee Waters: So, I do think we need to look afresh at our approach. We are going to be continuing to work closely with local government and with the police to work through the practicalities of this, and the pilots that John Griffiths asked about will be developed with them in a range of different settings. So, Russell George, we will definitely want one of those to be in a rural setting. The geographical...
Lee Waters: Llywydd, thank you for allowing me to make a point of order. In my opening contribution to the debate on 20 mph, I correctly said that, last year, 80 children were killed or seriously injured in road collisions in Wales. In my closing contribution I misread my notes and used the figure of 800. I hope you'll accept this was a reflection of fatigue, not an attempt to mislead. I'm grateful for...
Lee Waters: Thank you. For parents with pushchairs or people in wheelchairs, pavement parking can be not just a nuisance, but a danger. I have accompanied a blind person on a journey around their housing estate and when faced with a car taking up most of the pavement, their guide dog did as it was trained to do—it led them onto the road, rather than try and squeeze through the small gap. This is an...
Lee Waters: Thank you. I think I can give some reassurance to Russell George's anxieties there, because he has set out the process of traffic regulation orders and exempting streets across a large area that would apply if there was a blanket ban, but, as I've made clear, it's not the proposal of the taskforce to create a blanket ban, nor the Welsh Government's proposal. So, all of those things he's...
Lee Waters: Thank you very much and I appreciate that support. I think this is an issue that does cross party lines and will take a number of years to bring into force, and I think, as it's being enforced by all local authorities of all colours, it's important that that consensus is maintained, and I'm pleased that I have been in discussions with local authority leaders and with the police and crime...
Lee Waters: Thank you. Yes, I'll try and be brief in response. We have, as part of the latest 'Planning Policy Wales' issued, about two years ago now, put the hierarchy of road use within that guidance, which puts pedestrians at the top and cars at the bottom, and making sure that is implemented in all new build, I think, is going to be crucial for making sure that this problem doesn't keep popping up....
Lee Waters: I'm not sure I'm going to be able to do justice to all of those questions in the time available. A number of them have already been covered in the statement. So, perhaps Caroline Jones will forgive me if I just focus on those that haven't been covered. The issue of car sharing, I think, is a crucial one, and encouraging people to make what are called 'smarter choices'—car sharing and...
Lee Waters: There were two points there, really. First, I agree with Huw Irranca when he paints the picture that Vikki Howells also presented us with, of narrow streets with multiple cars and sometimes work vehicles, and I would reiterate: we can't build our way out of this problem. This is a problem that has emerged over the last 20 to 30 years as car dependency has grown. Even if we had the money and...
Lee Waters: Thank you very much. I very warmly welcome Janet Finch-Saunders's comments. On the two specific points, local authorities already have civil enforcement powers over a number of things. What we are simply doing here is adding a tool to the armoury. So, from a minimalist point of view, we're not creating any extra work or extra responsibilities for them; we're giving them an extra tool to...
