Lee Waters: Diolch, Llywydd. The world's scientists are telling us in very clear terms that we urgently need to cut our greenhouse gas emissions. Since 1990, Welsh emissions have fallen by 31 per cent, but to reach our statutory target of net zero by 2050 we need to do much more. As the UK Climate Change Committee reminded us last week, if we’re going to keep temperature rises within safe limits, in...
Lee Waters: Well, I just flatly disagree with that analysis of the problem. Natasha Asghar has set out the traditional predict-and-provide approach to road building: traffic is predicted to increase, therefore we will increase the supply of roads. We've pursued that route for 50 years and that has produced more traffic, longer journeys, people working further away from home, higher levels of air...
Lee Waters: Thank you for the comments, and I would hope that there's a great deal of common ground between the Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru on this issue. I note during the election campaign we were criticised for not being bold enough, not moving fast enough on climate change. I believe your party had a commitment to achieving net zero by 2035 and said that we were too slow in going for 2050. Now,...
Lee Waters: Thank you. Yes, of course, I'd be happy to meet, and that's an interesting example of where a bypass was built, what, 10 years ago now—I remember going to the opening ceremony—where that has created a set of solutions, but simply adds pressure further down the road network, leading to demands for further bypasses. That's the kind of predict-and-provide solution that I was describing...
Lee Waters: Well, I think quite a number of the points that Altaf Hussain mentioned were actually addressed in my statement, so I'll just give him a chance to reflect on that, and if he has further questions I'm happy to answer them. On the specific question of the cancer centre, that is not covered within the scope of this review, because that is a scheme to give access to a project; it is not a local...
Lee Waters: Thank you. I think it's important we take a consistent approach. We're saying that all schemes that currently aren't under construction need to be within the scope of the review, because the review needs to make a set of judgments about when road schemes, are the right solution to problems in the future. I think it would look very odd if we'd left Llandeilo out of the whole-Wales review and I...
Lee Waters: On that final point, I would note that 50 years ago, we had significantly higher levels of public transport use, walking and cycling, and the hills haven't suddenly appeared in the last 50 years. I think what has changed is our attitudes, our expectations and our habits, and that is the challenge for us, in behavioural change. There is no one solution to tackling carbon emissions in...
Lee Waters: As Mark Isherwood said, he has persistently made the case against the red route and, as the old line goes, some people just won't take 'yes' for an answer. We've now responded to that by freezing the scheme and reviewing it. I would have thought he would've welcomed that. I know he's not one to praise the Welsh Government easily, but I thought that was something that he would be a little more...
Lee Waters: In terms of the impact on business, one of the problems businesses have is congestion where you have people using cars to make journeys that could be made by other ways, but instead are snarling up the road network. So, if we get this right, we can take traffic off the road that doesn't need to be there, where there are practical alternatives. I repeat the figure that two-thirds of all...
Lee Waters: Thank you very much. I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the situation in Trefnant, but I'm very happy to look at it and have a further conversation with the Member. We are providing this year a record amount of investment for active travel infrastructure—£75 million, which is more per head than any other part of the country—and there is money available this year, on an ongoing basis, for...
Lee Waters: Thank you. I certainly agree that we need to be spending more money maintaining the highway network. The highway network is the largest asset that the Welsh Government has, the network within our own ownership, and obviously, that also applies to the local government-owned road network too. I think we need to be spending more money on looking after it. That's one of the consequences that I...
Lee Waters: Thank you. That doesn't fall within the remit of the roads review, but it does fall within the Wales transport strategy that we published in March, and we are looking at that last-mile delivery network and the potential for doing things differently. And as part of this year's funding, we are funding a pilot project using electric bikes to cargo bikes in Swansea, Aberystwyth, Newtown and in...
Lee Waters: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and thank you for the debate.
Lee Waters: I'm really encouraged by the degree of consensus there is, both on the importance of buses and on some of the measures that we need to take collectively to improve the situation. As Huw Irranca-Davies said at the outset, we need to restore the public purpose of public transport, and I thought that was a very powerful and insightful comment. And Heledd Fychan set out very powerfully how some...
Lee Waters: To respond to some of the comments in the many excellent contributions, I was pleased to see so many Members highlight the role that the Fflecsi demand-responsive bus service has played, and is playing in the Conwy Valley as Janet Finch-Saunders mentioned; Carolyn Thomas similarly talked of its potential, as did Vikki Howells as a way of bringing new passengers into buses and exploring where...
Lee Waters: Diolch yn fawr iawn, Llywydd, and I thank Members for their contributions. I was particularly pleased to hear Janet Finch-Saunders say at the conclusion there that, in the sixth Senedd, it's time for us to reset the discussion, and I was very encouraged two weeks ago when I heard Janet Finch-Saunders say that the publication of the Climate Change Committee report
Lee Waters: 'is a serious wake-up call for Wales', and I was also encouraged when I heard her say a week ago that 'rhetoric must now be met with bold and decisive action' when she called for us to declare a nature emergency. I've been reading about this thing called cognitive dissonance, which is a psychological concept where two actions or ideas are not psychologically consistent with each other, and...
Lee Waters: Diolch yn fawr. Let me begin by saying that trees are a good thing. We must protect the trees that we have, and plant 86 million more of them in Wales by the end of this decade, if we are to tackle the climate emergency. We need a step change in woodland creation, and a transformation in the way Welsh wood is used across our economy. Over the past month, I have led an intensive deep-dive...
Lee Waters: Thank you very much. It's always difficult, I know, for opposition spokespeople who have to write a contribution in advance of a Minister setting out what's happening, and it's a shame that much of what she accused me of had been addressed in my statement. She does remind me a little bit of the old saying that some people refuse to take 'yes' for an answer. You criticised me for not setting a...
Lee Waters: I'm answering your questions as patiently as I can and going through one at a time. I could have been far more brutal in my response, frankly, Janet Finch-Saunders. I'm trying to be kind to you, but you are making it hard. As opposed to excluding the unions, we've not excluded the unions. This was a very sharply focused taskforce. This was not a representative body with all the stakeholders....
