Lee Waters: Thank you. There were number of questions. Passenger demand is starting to return to the rail service. It's now at 66 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, which, clearly, is significantly lower, but it's increasing all the time and we are maintaining deep cleaning at stations and on trains. We've seen this trend right across the world, where post-pandemic confidence using mass transit is reduced,...
Lee Waters: Absolutely. I think that those are both strands of the same argument. Capacity and capability within local authorities is a real delivery constraint. That's why it's essential that local authorities work through the corporate joint committees to pool their resources. Then, we'll work alongside them, through Transport for Wales. James Price has said, as chief executive, that he wants TfW to be...
Lee Waters: [Inaudible.]—capture everything that's going on, that's for sure. We do have bids in to the Department for Transport for work to deliver on the Burns report. We've been given encouraging noises when I've met with Ministers, but have yet to have any confirmation that we are going to get the funding. Without the funding, it's not going to be possible to deliver on the Burns report and address...
Lee Waters: Well I know that, as a former leader of a local authority in north Wales, Sam Rowlands will fully value the importance of local leadership, and the role that local authorities have in shaping these proposals. And that's why I think it's important to create this joint delivery mechanism, both for operational and for strategic means, so we can together increase the ambition. I met with the...
Lee Waters: Naturally, I'm delighted to meet with the Member, and his local authority colleagues, to discuss the five options that we are currently looking at to increase the frequency of services on the Maesteg line as part of the phase 2 WelTAG process, which will be completed this financial year. All of the options being assessed include integrated transport hubs at Bridgend and Ewenny Road, and will...
Lee Waters: Well, Dirprwy Lywydd, there is not a Bill that is in the offing of the legislative programme that different campaigners don't want done in the first year of this Senedd term, and clearly we can't do them all in the first year of this Senedd term. So, the First Minister and the Counsel General are currently looking at the best way to manage that logjam. I would say that the pause does allow us...
Lee Waters: Well, we genuinely do want to work with them, and we do our very best to have constructive dialogue with them, but it's a bit of a one-way street at the moment, I've got to say. I did have a good meeting with, as I said, the chair of Network Rail recently, and I've met with some of the junior transport Ministers, but not with Grant Shapps himself. And their view is that we should be doing...
Lee Waters: I think the Member makes a really important point about providing people with information. The research shows that there are two barriers to people taking up public transport: one, is a lack of services, but the other is a lack of information and knowledge about the services that do exist. So, giving people targeted information is essential, and that is one of the things we’re looking at as...
Lee Waters: Well, Darren Millar never misses an opportunity to sow division and try and create a sense of grievance—
Lee Waters: It’s the first time I’ve heard him make a case for rail investment in north Wales. As I say, he’s normally obsessed with putting money into road-building schemes, despite then going on to plead for the plight of the red squirrel, which—by the way, if we don’t tackle change, biodiversity will be threatened. So, there’s a disconnect in his argument and his thinking too. As I said,...
Lee Waters: Well, I've got to say there’s nothing stopping the local authorities in north Wales from developing an ambitious active travel network now, nor indeed putting in bus lanes. That power has been there all along, and there’s money available to do it. So, that’s why I want to set up this delivery unit, so that we are acting far better together in pushing in the same direction. The red...
Lee Waters: Well, I think we should be more diagnostic, really, when it comes to public transport in rural areas. I know there is a fixation on heavy rail trains, but, in carbon terms, we've got very tough targets to have to meet. We have to increase emission cuts in the next 10 years more than we've managed in the whole of the last 30 years, and we have a finite amount of money to do that with. So, I...
Lee Waters: Well, clearly, the UK Government has a role to play in public transport in north Wales, and rail is not devolved. And, as has already been mentioned, the electrification of the north Wales line has yet to materialise. We have pushed for union connectivity funding for the delivery unit to push forward electrification of the north Wales line, and I'd appreciate Mark Isherwood's help in...
Lee Waters: As I confirmed to Joyce Watson in the climate change committee this morning, the A40 Llanddewi Velfrey to Redstone Cross project will not be reviewed by the roads review panel, and will proceed as programmed.
Lee Waters: I'm very happy to clarify that when we announced the roads review, we made a distinction between roads that were within scope and those that were outside of scope. Those that were outside of scope were ones where contracts had been let. The phrase I used was that there were 'diggers in the ground'. Now, I think Mr Kurtz has interpreted 'diggers in the ground' rather literally and made a...
Lee Waters: I don't think there's anything to add. I thank Joyce Watson for her comments and I agree with her summary.
Lee Waters: Apologies. I've already provided, Llywydd, a written statement to Members with the decision on the Llanbedr access road. The chair's report was included and set out the recommendations, which I've accepted, and the Welsh Government will not support any further work on the current Llanbedr access road scheme.
Lee Waters: I can see that the benefit of time is not making Mabon ap Gwynfor any more amenable to the arguments put forward by the independent panel. I understand his disappointment, because there is often strong local attachment to these schemes. I heard people saying yesterday that this is a scheme that's been an ambition locally for 70 years. We often see this happening where local authorities, when...
Lee Waters: Llywydd, Natasha Asghar says that she understands the climate is a concern of mine. I thought it was a concern of hers too, because I've been hearing speeches she's been making week after week telling me how we're not being bold enough and fast enough, and certainly Janet Finch-Saunders as well. I heard Janet Finch-Saunders say at the demonstration with the ice sculpture before heading off to...
Lee Waters: Formally.
