Mark Isherwood: Whether delivering preventative services, driving forward the local economy, providing education, social care and leisure centres or collecting bins, resilient local government is essential. The Welsh Local Government Association described the initial local government settlement as, quote: 'a deeply disappointing outcome for councils across Wales with the gravest implications for...services'....
Mark Isherwood: 6. How is the Welsh Government aiming to improve transport infrastructure in North Wales? OAQ53164
Mark Isherwood: Thank you. Well, a few days later, on 27 November, I called for a Welsh Government statement on rail services in north Wales after a weekend of delayed and cancelled rail services in north Wales, where I've been reliably informed by rail insiders that a shortage of tooling spares and access to wheel lathes being in place and ensured they were put in place by the incoming operator had caused...
Mark Isherwood: On a positive note, we have Airbus in north-east Wales, which has made its own concerns known. If we don't have a transition deal, then perhaps those who voted against the Prime Minister's deal should consider the risks that they have added of that not happening. However, on a positive note, and despite potential outcomes in this context, the UK defence and aerospace industry recorded a £10...
Mark Isherwood: We know that the Holyhead infrastructure prospectus says that the Wylfa Newydd nuclear new build, along with other proposed developments in Anglesey, presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to transform the economy and communities of the island. As you rightly said yesterday, this project has potentially significant benefits to Anglesey, north Wales and the UK. We know that the subsidiary...
Mark Isherwood: At a meeting of the cross-party autism group in November 2014, members of the autism community from across Wales told us that the Welsh Government's autism strategy was not delivering and people were being pushed further into crisis. The meeting voted unanimously for an autism Act. On January 21, 2015, I led an individual Member debate here that called on the Welsh Government to introduce an...
Mark Isherwood: Diolch. [Laughter.] Thank you. Question: what will you now say to retract your statement last week that the Prime Minister had been in Japan the previous week and hadn't raised this, when the Prime Minister of Japan was actually in London, and she confirmed in the House of Commons that she had, as did the Secretary of State for Wales, who confirmed that he'd also met her in the House of...
Mark Isherwood: Of course, we already know that the prison and probation service in Wales will be responsible for probation again from 2020 in Wales, with a focus on communities, community sentencing and rehabilitation. But, given that the Wales Governance Centre analysis that this question originally related to found that under the Westminster criminal justice system, as it was earlier termed, the total...
Mark Isherwood: Could I call, please, for a single oral statement—not now, but hopefully within a very short period of time—on the Welsh independent living grant? Eleven days ago, I chaired a meeting of the Cross-Party Group on Disability, the Assembly group, in north Wales. It was packed, and I was asked by attendees to raise this issue again in the Senedd, and, quote: to try to get some answers,...
Mark Isherwood: I welcome particularly your comments at the end that this is a precautionary measure and that your civil contingency planning, 'is no way signalling that we expect an emergency, but rather that we want to work effectively with our public services...to ensure they are prepared', and that your aim is to minimise the likely need for a civil contingency response. I'm sure that that is an approach...
Mark Isherwood: The Welsh Government website says that the energy service aims to develop energy efficiency and renewable energy projects and provides technical, financial and other specialist support for energy projects. You just mentioned working with community groups and others. The original effective pilot, the local affordable warmth scheme launched in Flintshire some years ago, was always built upon a...
Mark Isherwood: Diolch, Llywydd. Speaking after the 15 January publication of the Wales Audit Office report on the standards of financial management in community councils, the Welsh Government Trefnydd, or business organiser, said last week: 'I know that the Minister clearly will be considering that report. Members will have the opportunity to question her on that in her question time next week.' So, here...
Mark Isherwood: Thank you. And of course when I was a community councillor it was an excellent community council—despite me, but nonetheless. Clearly, it's not a universal problem, but it's a serious enough problem to have been flagged up in this way. The independent review panel's final report on community and town councils in Wales was presented to your predecessor on 3 October. It had many...
Mark Isherwood: Well, this recommendation did include a representative of town and community councils, rather than necessarily—
Mark Isherwood: As you've heard mentioned by more than one Member in the Chamber, last November, Flintshire council launched its #BacktheAsk campaign in full council, and received full and unanimous cross-party support to, quote, take the fight down to the local government department in Cardiff to get a fair share of national funds. In a subsequent letter to the Welsh Government, he stated, alongside the...
Mark Isherwood: Diolch. I'm still rapidly scribbling notes, because you've all said so much, and thanks very much to all the contributors. Nick Ramsay began by summoning the memory of Bobby Kennedy. We must remember his brother, JFK, when President, had argued that strong economic growth required lower taxes. Many in his own party disagreed with him, but, at the time, back in 1963, he was proved right. He...
Mark Isherwood: Very, very quickly, yes.
Mark Isherwood: Thank you. I'm sure that's helped the clarity of understanding of people in Wales. Mohammad Asghar said that at the time of the referendum—the devolution referendum—people in Wales were told that our economic problems could only be solved by devolution, but Wales still remains lagging at the back of the UK economic league table. He said that an increased tax burden on Welsh taxpayers...
Mark Isherwood: Bethesda, yes.
Mark Isherwood: I call for two formal Welsh Government statements on interrelated matters. The British Polio Fellowship marks its eightieth anniversary this month—January 2019—and I call for a Welsh Government statement on its support for the estimated 12,000 people in Wales who had polio, and the many more who perhaps never knew that they had it. I'll take this opportunity to thank the British Polio...
