Llyr Gruffydd: Could we have a statement from the relevant Government Minister on the recent fire at Kronospan in Chirk, which has caused huge concern locally, of course? It's the third fire there in just three years, and it burned for a week, causing pollution across the town and further afield. Now, it took 48 hours for air quality monitoring equipment to be put in place, which missed, of course, the...
Llyr Gruffydd: What effect will the Welsh Government's investment in transport for 2020/2021 have on the climate emergency?
Llyr Gruffydd: Would you take an intervention—
Llyr Gruffydd: —given that you've referred to a letter with my name on it? In fairness to members of the committee, those figures are figures that were requested by the committee, and the Government, in sincerity, provided those figures. There is a disparity between what was initially tabled, and what subsequently was before us, but, of course, that is the whole point of having a scrutiny process. It...
Llyr Gruffydd: You've just told us there were 157 incidents in 2019. Yes, 157 pollution incidents are 157 too many. Of course, there's no mention of the 30,000 sewage pollution incidents in 2018. So, I think we do need a little bit of perspective when we discuss these issues. Now, you mentioned that you wanted to work in collaboration. I'd commend that. You might wish to collaborate with Natural Resources...
Llyr Gruffydd: But the fact remains that NRW is not supporting the proposal to make the whole of Wales an NVZ, and whilst there are incidents and those need to be tackled, clearly they feel that doing so across 8 per cent of Wales would be sufficient to address the issue. We all look forward to seeing the regulatory impact assessment, because the draft one was only a 20-page document, and for a change this...
Llyr Gruffydd: It just begs the question: how much consideration had you given to previous iterations of these proposals, or whether you had been involved at all? Because you sound as if you're disowning what we've had so far, because you haven't had a chance to look at the file that you've now been provided with. So, I think that there are big questions there about who's making decisions or bringing...
Llyr Gruffydd: 6. Will the Minister make a statement on monitoring air quality in North Wales? OAQ54990
Llyr Gruffydd: In light of the recent fire at the Kronospan plant at Chirk and the subsequent pollution effect that that had on the locality—I'm told it's the seventeenth fire in 18 years, although a number of residents there assert that they're much more regular occurrences, actually, than that—can you tell me whether you're satisfied with the level of monitoring carried out by Natural Resources Wales...
Llyr Gruffydd: 2. What assessment has the Minister made of the relationship between population forecasts and local development plans? OAQ54991
Llyr Gruffydd: The Wrexham local development plan in my own region was rejected back in 2013 by the planning inspectors because there wasn't sufficient land allocated for housing, in their opinion. That was because the population forecasts for the county had stated that there would be a 20 per cent increase in population—the second-highest increase throughout the whole of Wales, second only to Cardiff....
Llyr Gruffydd: Many of us are, of course, painfully aware that in June Betsi Cadwaladr health board will reach a very sorry milestone in terms of the fact that it will have been in special measures for five years. Now, that is the length of an Assembly term—a full Assembly term in special measures, which I think highlights how grave the situation is. And one does find oneself asking, 'Well, what have...
Llyr Gruffydd: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer, for the opportunity to speak to the Plaid Cymru amendment and on the motion more broadly. There are three clauses to the original motion, and there are two of them that I would have no problem with, along the lines suggested earlier. There are some quite obvious statements: recognising the historic importance of fisheries in Wales in the first...
Llyr Gruffydd: 'There's a wagon waiting on the quayside when we land. We take the mussels off the boat and they're put in the wagon, the wagon drives away. And then it's a 16 to 18-hour transit time from north Wales to northern France or the south of Holland. If they order from me on a Monday, then they expect the wagon to arrive on a Tuesday because they want to...sell them on a Wednesday. It’s that...
Llyr Gruffydd: Therefore, the importance of the first section of the Plaid Cymru amendment is clear: that we want to keep those channels as open and as seamless as possible. The second section then calls for the UK Fisheries Bill to ensure that any devolved legislation delivers truly sustainable and accountable fisheries management, and minimises the impact on the marine environment, while also supporting...
Llyr Gruffydd: Thank you very much, Llywydd. I'm pleased to contribute to this important debate on the Welsh Government's draft budget for 2020-21 on behalf of the Finance Committee. Our report does make a series of recommendations, and I'll cover some of the most prominent of those in my contribution to this debate this afternoon. Now, as we've heard, given the uncertainty around the UK general election...
Llyr Gruffydd: As a result, the Finance Committee has made every effort to engage with stakeholders on this draft budget. This began in June 2019 when we held a pre-budget stakeholder event in Aberystwyth. This formed the basis for a Finance Committee proposed debate here in the Siambr, which followed in September 2019, giving the Assembly an opportunity to debate the spending priorities of the Welsh...
Llyr Gruffydd: I just want to pick up on the references that we've heard to the 2,000 people dying prematurely because of air pollution. Of course, that doesn't take into account as well the many thousands who are suffering illnesses as a result of pollution in the air. The scale of those experiences is not reflected in the scale of the response from the Welsh Government, which is a sentiment that's already...
Llyr Gruffydd: Thank you very much, Llywydd. Ten years ago, Welsh councils owned almost 1,000 smallholdings, which were let out to give opportunities to young farmers to gain entry into the farming industry. The latest statistics we have show that councils—and one does recognise this—that are under huge financial pressures because of austerity have been selling those assets off, and very often, as we...
Llyr Gruffydd: Why is this important? Well, you may say that 16,000 hectares of land is insignificant in the wider scheme of things, but I want to make the case for its significance in ensuring a thriving future for farming in Wales. Council-owned farms were developed more than a century ago to enable people without farming connections or land to work in agriculture. Now, I'd argue they're needed more than...
