Alun Davies: We and local government continue to work in partnership to explore ways to improve the existing needs-based funding formula, to better reflect authorities’ relative need to spend.
Alun Davies: The Presiding Officer will be aware that one of my first acts as a Member here back in 2007 was to undertake a review of rural poverty and deprivation in rural communities and the memory of that investigation stays with me today. We understand that poverty in rural Wales can be very different to poverty in urban communities. We understand that very well. The formula does seek to review those...
Alun Davies: In April, I set out in my written statement the range of future support from the Welsh Government for the armed forces community.
Alun Davies: The Government’s overall budget priorities, including the funding for local authorities, were set out yesterday. Whilst there is no ring-fencing of any specific part of the settlement, we and local government have prioritised funding for essential public services such as education and social care.
Alun Davies: Local authorities are democratically accountable for their performance. Welsh Government supports self-assessment and peer review and transparency about performance to enable public bodies to drive improvement and offer citizens a clear picture of performance. Audit, inspection and regulatory bodies have a key role in monitoring the quality of public services.
Alun Davies: Local authorities are subject to accountability through the electorate, and the Welsh Government continues to encourage local government to conduct its business in an open and transparent manner. Our recent consultations on local government reform proposed a range of ways to further increase transparency.
Alun Davies: Anti-social behaviour has a damaging effect on our communities. We are committed to addressing the issue through our funding of an additional 500 community support officers and implementing the recommendations of the Working Together for Safer Communities review.
Alun Davies: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. Members will be aware that on 5 June this year the Wales Governance Centre published, 'Imprisonment in Wales: a Factfile', which highlights Wales-specific data across the prison system. Can I state at the outset that I'm very grateful to the Wales Governance Centre and to Dr Robert Jones for this work? We recognise that it is a snapshot...
Alun Davies: I'm talking about a system and a structure of secure estate, and I'm asking the question: does that serve Wales's interests? And I think you would be very hard pressed to find the answer 'yes' in examining that. And if you do look at the secure estate we have here in south Wales, along the M4 corridor, I want to see significant investment in that secure estate. If you walk into either...
Alun Davies: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I'm grateful to all Members who've taken the time to contribute to the debate this afternoon. This is an important debate for all of us, on all sides of this Chamber, because the way that we deal with the criminal justice system is fundamental to the way in which we order and manage our public services in Wales. And let me say this to...
Alun Davies: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer, for this opportunity to update Members about the progress we are making in creating a Valleys regional park. Deputy Presiding Officer, all of us who were born and brought up in the south Wales Valleys understand the history of the landscape. We also recognise the importance of the place in terms of our national story. The communities in the...
Alun Davies: Deputy Presiding Officer, nothing could be further from the truth. Over the course of the last 50 years, the Valleys’ landscapes have undergone a remarkable transformation, probably more than we have witnessed anywhere else in Wales, the UK or beyond. The challenge for us today, in twenty-first century Wales and in twenty-first century post-industrial Valleys communities, is how we make...
Alun Davies: Deputy Presiding Officer, I am in a surprisingly good and generous mood this afternoon, Members will be pleased to hear, so I won't accept the Conservative spokesperson's invitation to turn this debate this afternoon into a partisan disagreement or a competition between regions of Wales. I think both propositions would be the wrong way to go about answering both the questions, the very fair...
Alun Davies: Let me say this: the creation of a regional park in the south Wales Valleys should be something that can be celebrated across the whole country. The first speech, Deputy Presiding Officer, I made in this place, actually, something like 11 or 12 years ago, was on the dangers of parochialism, setting village against village, place against place, county against county, north against south, east...
Alun Davies: The Member for South Wales West has made me feel quite inadequate. None of my family, as far as I know, have written any hymns at all—
Alun Davies: I hope so—although a number of us have, at different times, tried to sing them. I did fear for a moment that the Member was going to go through the whole caniedydd at one point, which would have left me feeling even more inadequate. However, he also touched on some fascinating points. He might not wish to know this, but the book by the side of my bed at the moment is 'I Know Another Way'....
Alun Davies: Of course, the Gadlys ironworks are well known, and their comparison with Merthyr has been well made, but they both, of course, fade into insignificance when compared with Sirhowy, where the ironworks there—. It's a good example, actually, of where an extraordinarily important part of our heritage was left to rot and to decay for decade after decade, because we—all of us here from the...
Alun Davies: In terms of taking forward a number of different issues, we've seen through the community asset transfer process a number of community assets that are having life breathed into them afresh. I visited the Blaenavon Workmen's Hall some time ago and it's extraordinary to see it reborn again. In my own constituency, Llanhilleth Miners Institute continues to be a centre of the community. You...
Alun Davies: Yes, absolutely, it will be, and the litmus test will be Rhymney—I have no doubt about that. If we are to look at the development of the regional park as a concept, as a framework for other developments taking place within it, then if we succeed then we will succeed in Rhymney. You look at those sorts of communities where you've had major towns close by—we've seen some significant...
Alun Davies: Presiding Officer, all discussions about the Valleys of south Wales must include a discussion on Neath. It is absolutely essential that we pay attention to the history and the culture of that fantastic place. Let me say this: I visited Cefn Coed, I understand the issues—I hope I understand some of the issues there—and we do need to look at how we ensure that Government works together...
