Mike Hedges: Perhaps one way forward would be to charge online retailers as if they were on the high street.
Mike Hedges: As I said to Janet Finch-Saunders earlier, why can't we charge the online sellers in their big warehouses as if they were on the high street?
Mike Hedges: Many children are living in poverty not caused by parental indolence or wastefulness; many parents are working two or three jobs, but at minimum wage, on irregular hours. The expansion of free school meals to a universal provision of meals is very welcome. What further help can the Welsh Government give to support foodbanks, and will the Welsh Government make representation to end the fixed...
Mike Hedges: I very much welcome the statement. I agree with the Minister that the development bank here in Wales means we can maintain capability and stability to drive economic development. I, like Paul Davies, am pleased that the development bank is taking a proactive role in facilitating help for businesses. I have three questions. How is it intended to help businesses move from small to medium-sized...
Mike Hedges: Thanks to Tom Giffard for giving me a minute in this debate. Successful regions and countries in the world use their universities as economic drivers—Cambridge, Bristol and Warwickshire, amongst others in England, and California, Denmark and Germany, which are economically successful, benefit from their universities, such as Stanford, Heidelberg and Aarhus. We have outstanding universities...
Mike Hedges: I very much welcome the statement by the Minister. I agree with the Minister that the cost-of-living crisis is, in a large part, driven by energy prices, as increases are affecting the price of not just gas and electric but many other consumables. Whilst this is having a detrimental effect on all of our living standards, it's having a devastating effect on households who are least able to...
Mike Hedges: I welcome the statement by the Minister. Now is the time for an unremitting focus on creating a strong renewable energy future and continuing to establish Wales as a leader for net zero. Wales benefits from diverse renewable energy resources—onshore wind, fixed and floating offshore wind, wave, tidal and solar—all of which can bring significant opportunities to Wales. Renewables are...
Mike Hedges: In South Wales West, we have different boundaries for the police service and the fire and rescue service, with the ambulance service on an all-Wales basis. Has the Minister considered consulting on reorganising the fire service so that its boundaries mirror the police boundaries?
Mike Hedges: I actually believe in the direct provision of services and I'm opposed to the contracting out of public service to private contractors. Did the Commission consider bringing the contract in-house, and if they did, why did they reject doing so?
Mike Hedges: Thank you.
Mike Hedges: Thank you very much. Tabernacle Chapel in Morriston. This year marks 150 years since the opening of the independent Tabernacle chapel in Morriston. Those watching Dechrau Canu Dechrau Canmol on Sunday would have seen the chapel full and would have seen the splendour both inside and out. It was designed by the architect John Humphrey and was built at a cost of £15,000 in 1872, which is...
Mike Hedges: I don't know how to say it in Welsh, but it is a building that shows Morriston and is seen as the chapel of Morriston.
Mike Hedges: Previously, it was the home of the world-famous Morriston Orpheus choir, and it now regularly hosts concerts for the Morriston women's choir, the Morriston rugby club choir and the Tabernacle choir. It was built to replace Libanus, because that had become too small for the number of regular attendees. The design was copied several times elsewhere in Wales. The pulpit is the focal point, and...
Mike Hedges: 3. What support is the Welsh Government providing for community allotments? OQ58686
Mike Hedges: I thank the First Minister for his reply. I've got allotments in my constituency that have benefited from the grants that have been available, but there are still very many people who want an allotment but cannot get one. The public sector in Wales, both Welsh Government sponsored bodies, the Welsh Government itself and local authorities, have land that they own but currently have no...
Mike Hedges: I would like to ask for two statements. The first one is on the number of organisations who provide only online help and online services, thus excluding those who do not have access to an online facility or cannot use online facilities. I would like to ask for a statement from the Government on how they're ensuring that those who cannot or do not want to use online facilities can actually...
Mike Hedges: Diolch, Llywydd. Can I welcome the Minister's statement? The Minister is correct: over the next 20 years—in fact, the next 50 years—Wales faces wetter winters, hotter, drier summers, rising sea levels and more frequent and intense extreme weather events. Many of us growing up in the 1960s and 1970s were used to continual light rain; now we have long, dry spells, broken by very heavy rain,...
Mike Hedges: Llywydd, you've forgotten Rhun.
Mike Hedges: I thought it was a debate. Sorry.
Mike Hedges: I welcome the Minister's statement. I sum the Westminster Government's autumn statement up as very disappointing, but not disastrous. After 12 years of Conservative Government in Westminster and a decade of austerity, the UK is in a deep recession and households are facing the biggest fall in living standards on record—the 'just managing' have become the 'just not managing'. The £1.2...
