Hannah Blythyn: Natural Resources Wales are responsible for the scheme. I met with their officials and elected representatives, including yourself, on 9 January to further discuss this scheme and the concerns of residents. During the meeting, NRW explained the reasons for the works and the options they had considered to alleviate flood risk.
Hannah Blythyn: Thank you for your question and your interest in this. Roath Brook Gardens and Roath Mill Gardens are the final phase of the flood alleviation works, and this process has been under way for five years. We've gone through planning and consultation and it's now at the implementation stage. Residents' concerns were raised very late in the process and at this final implementation stage. I called...
Hannah Blythyn: The Member makes a very important point, and I'm glad you were able to join us for that meeting last week. In this particular case, more trees are being replanted than are being felled. I recognise the strength of emotion and feeling that people have for their local parks and recreation places. I think, as part of our woodland creation strategy, we do, perhaps, need to look again at how we...
Hannah Blythyn: The Welsh Government is providing new enforcement powers to Natural Resources Wales to tackle illegal and poorly operated sites. We have also provided funding for fire and rescue service staff to be seconded to NRW to develop fire prevention and mitigation plans and help train operators in the waste industry.
Hannah Blythyn: Absolutely. The Welsh Government has provided £200,000 to Natural Resources Wales to help fund additional waste crime work. The funding has paid for an officer from the fire and rescue services to work with Natural Resources Wales to develop and embed guidance on fire prevention at waste sites. The Welsh Government introduced powers in October 2015 to make it easier for the regulator to...
Hannah Blythyn: Thank you, Llywydd. I look forward to discussing these regulations, which will make an important contribution to improving air quality and reducing industrial pollution.
Hannah Blythyn: In the air quality debate on 5 December I set out the range of actions that the Welsh Government is taking to deliver improvements to air quality in Wales. During this debate I made clear the actions essential for the health and well-being of our communities and our environment. The Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2018 will implement the medium...
Hannah Blythyn: May I thank the Member for his contribution in this debate? Your first question was on the late transposal of the medium combustion plant directive. The delayed transposition has resulted from delays to the finalisation of elements of the regulations dealing with the interplay with existing industrial environmental controls. Once the regulations were finalised they had to go through a...
Hannah Blythyn: The Welsh Ministers have informed the developer of the biomass plant that they are minded to direct that an environmental impact assessment must accompany their planning application currently before the Vale of Glamorgan Council. Any representations they will make will be taken into account before a final decision is made.
Hannah Blythyn: Thank you for that question. I appreciate the residents' and the Member's concerns, and I recognise the role the Member has played in being involved with making representations on this issue on behalf of her constituents. In terms of the announcement by the future generations commissioner, our guidance in the well-being of future generations Act makes it clear that the Act provides...
Hannah Blythyn: Thank you for your question. I know, also, that the Member has been vociferous in this matter and has asked a number of questions previously on behalf of residents and constituents. In terms of the environmental impact assessment, this refers to a specific process to comply with the EIA directive, so that when the EIA is taken as part of a planning application, and acts as a...
Hannah Blythyn: Quality green spaces and parks provide opportunities for healthy recreation, support biodiversity and contribute to reducing flood risk and air pollution. The Welsh Government has allocated £27.8 million of capital funding from 2017 to support the development of green infrastructure over a period of four years.
Hannah Blythyn: I was grateful for the opportunity to join you at the event, and it was good to hear from you then. One of the things that struck me at the event that we talked about was the emotional ownership of your local green spaces, but then how that actually becomes actual ownership. And you're right that access to green spaces has broader health, economic and social benefits; it's not just good for...
Hannah Blythyn: Absolutely. The Member makes very important and very valid points. Green spaces are also not just about safety; green spaces help to reduce air and noise pollution as well. I think we are cracking forward with our air quality strategy at the moment, so that's perhaps something we could take up further and consider going forward.
Hannah Blythyn: Rights of way improvement plans help local authorities to identify, plan and prioritise improvements to their local rights of way network. The Welsh Government provides financial support to local authorities to deliver path improvements. This funding has made over 10,000 kilometres of paths easier to use.
Hannah Blythyn: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. As a nation, we can be proud of our groundbreaking success on recycling.
Hannah Blythyn: Before devolution, Wales only recycled 5 per cent of waste. We have now reached over 60 per cent. We are leading the way in the UK, and I want us to build on this to make Wales the No. 1 recycling nation in the world. Our success is down to the hard work of people everywhere in Wales, whether they are recycling at home, in the community, or at work. I want to place on record today my thanks...
Hannah Blythyn: Diolch. Thank you for that comprehensive contribution and questions. You mentioned how litter and dog fouling are often seen as those trivial or low-level political issues, but if you go around a local community and you do a survey, they are the things that are likely to be most high on it, which is why, for me, it's very important that we tackle litter as part of recycling and how we deal...
Hannah Blythyn: Thank you for those questions.
Hannah Blythyn: To start with, in terms of the extended producer responsibility report—and I agree with you that we're proud that we've led the way and we're able to innovate in Wales, and we do want to continue to do that. In terms of when the report is due, it is due this week. When that's out we'll be assessing this and developing recommendations, where appropriate. So, I do hope to be able to come back...
