Neil McEvoy: Thank you, Presiding Officer. Your colleague is quoting the Learner Travel (Wales) Measure 2008 to defend his position, because, technically, he is legally correct, but, morally, I would say he is wrong, because there’s a world of difference between the aspirational routes in the Act and where children actually walk and how they actually get to school. So, will your Government write to the...
Neil McEvoy: I think very few people believe in selling stock off and not replacing it. My question really is: what is wrong with selling off social housing responsibly, and reinvesting to build more social housing to create a virtuous circle and enable people to become more independent? And I suppose, really, this may be addressed to everybody, because everybody here owns their own home. Now, I won’t...
Neil McEvoy: Will the Cabinet Secretary provide an update on the work of the external advisory panel on EU withdrawal?
Neil McEvoy: I’d like a statement on the biomass project, or the incinerator, as local residents refer to it. I’d like to enquire why the voices of local people have been ignored. There’s a lot of concern about the possibility of fire and there’s massive concern about the quality of air that people will be breathing. I really cannot think of a more unsuitable place for a development like...
Neil McEvoy: Will the First Minister make a statement on the public tendering process in Wales?
Neil McEvoy: Cabinet Secretary, Womanby Street is a place famous for live music right across Wales, and I’m sure there are many of us in this Chamber who’ve had some very late nights in those venues. Many renowned musicians have started their careers in Womanby Street. Now, Wales is a musical nation and music is the heartbeat of Wales. It’s also the heartbeat of this city, and we need to encourage...
Neil McEvoy: Diolch, Llywydd. Three and a half thousand people have now signed the petition to this Assembly calling for us to protect live music venues in Wales. That petition was started by the conductor and composer, Richard Vaughan. The problem is that there are two proposals to develop in Wales’s most famous live music street, Womanby Street, and the developments pose a threat to the music venues...
Neil McEvoy: I’m not so sure about the sense part there in voting Conservative. This is a timely debate with the elections tomorrow. I will declare an interest: I am standing for election. I’d like to highlight the 6.5 per cent cuts in local government funding since 2011 and 2012 because it has not been necessary. It has been a very lazy, easy cut for—
Neil McEvoy: No. —for this Labour Government. All we hear about from the Labour side are the awful Conservative cuts from London. Granted—I agree. But, what about scandals like the Lisvane land deal where you’ve wasted £38 million in one single deal or the sale of two shops at a loss of £1 million to the taxpayer? We need to keep our streets clean in Wales, but, again, if you look at Cardiff, what...
Neil McEvoy: Minister, in March 2017 the accounts of Natural Resources Wales were not given a clean bill of health. It related to a timber contract given out over 10 years when the usual length of contract was five years. The company that was given the contract did not apply for the tender. The chief executive of Natural Resources Wales told the Public Accounts Committee that there had been a full...
Neil McEvoy: Sunday was Father’s Day. Thousands of children across Wales would have been prevented from seeing their fathers. Could you give a Government statement on what the Government is doing to enable both parents to see their children, because something really should be being done?
Neil McEvoy: First Minister, will your Government legislate to guarantee housing and healthcare for veterans who have seen active service?
Neil McEvoy: I want to raise the issue of Cardiff Aviation, based in the Vale of Glamorgan. It’s another company that has received millions of pounds from the Welsh Government, promising to bring thousands of jobs to south Wales. It now seems that only a third of those jobs were created, and I had to bring to light that Cardiff Aviation have failed to pay any rent for a number of years. It now emerges...
Neil McEvoy: 8. How successful has the £122 million invested in Flying Start and Families First been in supporting fathers, especially separated fathers, to fulfil their parenting role? OAQ(5)0167(CC)
Neil McEvoy: Okay, thanks. I think the honest answer, really, should have been that you don’t actually know, because no data are collected. So, just to prove the point now, in front of everybody in this Senedd, can you give us a figure—a figure—on how many fathers are engaged?
Neil McEvoy: So, the answer is: you don’t know.
Neil McEvoy: I think like everyone in the Chamber, I feel very, very bad for the employees who are about to lose their jobs. I know some of them, in fact, that work up there. It’s not new for us to lose jobs in this way through big corporations not really valuing their workforce. The solution really lies in creating new jobs, so would you consider setting an entrepreneurial fund so that people who will...
Neil McEvoy: First of all, unfortunately I think Mike Hedges was right, actually, about Swansea.
Neil McEvoy: As a Cardiff City Football Club fan it is. To be serious, though, I’ve had a lot of complaints from constituents that they don’t feel that we support cycling enough in Wales. Geraint Thomas has just been the first Welshman to ever wear the yellow jersey, and I would hope you would congratulate him on that formally. I would just like to know: what is your Government doing to promote...
Neil McEvoy: Leader of the house, following the latest £9.3 million Circuit of Wales debacle, inherited from a former Minister, I’m looking for a statement from you on the following: Kancoat, £3.4 million wasted on a company with a weak business plan; Oysterworld, £1.4 million lost; Kukd, £1 million on a company now being investigated. We had the Lisvane land deal in Cardiff North, where land was...
