Lee Waters: I will have to write to the Member about the detail of that. It's not immediately available off the top of my head. However, the broad point he makes is a fair one, as I've just indicated, in the question, and I'd be happy to follow up.FootnoteLink
Lee Waters: Yes, of course, I'd be happy to meet my fellow Wales Co-operative Members of the Senedd to discuss this. Community transport has an important part to play as part of the mix of solutions we see to achieve modal shift. We are trialling, of course, with Transport for Wales, our own Fflecsi bus service, which adopts a similar principle to community transport of providing a flexibility to meet...
Lee Waters: Cynon Valley is currently served by a community transport scheme operated by Accessible Caring Transport. Rhondda Cynon Taf council provide financial support for this service, using the bus services support grant provided by the Welsh Government and their own funds.
Lee Waters: Thank you for the question. Responsibility for connectivity lies with the UK Government, but we continue to step in to provide connectivity. Seven thousand five hundred and eight premises have now been given access to full fibre in north Wales under the Welsh Government's £56 million full fibre roll-out. We continue to provide connectivity solutions through our local broadband fund and our...
Lee Waters: That is the key point in the debate that we need to keep emphasising. This is now an essential utility service. I hear from Members across the Chamber about difficulties their constituents have getting connected, and it is a real impediment to being able to carry out essential functions in society. But the UK Government, who have responsibility for broadband, refuse, either through ideology...
Lee Waters: Well, I ought to commend the Member on his ingenuity of trying to present this in this way. Of course, the Flintshire corridor is a 13 km, two-lane dual carriageway, so it's not immediately apparent to me that it's an integral part of the north Wales metro, and also it is covered by the roads review scheme, and I couldn't pre-empt what decisions they make, because, obviously, as part of the...
Lee Waters: Well, thank you for the question, and I certainly agree with you that branding imagery is really important to generate an excitement amongst people that change is coming, and to give people faith that change is coming too. So, I take the point on board. I am discussing this with TfW around the south Wales metro, so I promise to add that to the conversations I'm having and keep the Member...
Lee Waters: Thank you. Well, the metros in different parts of Wales are at different ranges of development. The south Wales metro, for example, is more advanced, and it's a massively complex project. The one in north Wales is a different mix of modes—there are fewer train lines than you have in the south Wales Valleys, for example, and so bus has a far greater role to play, as does active travel. I...
Lee Waters: Yes. I recently agreed a further £9.3 million of funding to local authorities and Transport for Wales for projects supporting the development and delivery of the north Wales metro, including enhancements to active travel, bus and rail infrastructure across the north.
Lee Waters: I think that's an absolutely central point—we don't want simply to transfer the existing fleet of cars from petrol and diesel over to electric; we want fewer cars on the road, for all sorts of reasons that cars cause harm. But we want to give people choice, and we can do that by providing electric car clubs—something I'm very keen on—with communities having easy access to a car club so...
Lee Waters: Thank you for the important question, and clearly we’re in a transition from the internal combustion engine to electric cars, and the UK Government have said that, by the end of the decade, you won’t be able to buy petrol or diesel cars. So, this is a scheme that we’ll need to work closely with the UK Government on, because as to your question on scrappage schemes and tax incentives,...
Lee Waters: Thank you for the question. Our strategy for encouraging greener transport is clearly set out in 'Llwybr Newydd: the Wales Transport Strategy 2021', which reiterates our determination to achieve more active travel, greater use of public transport and low-emission vehicles, and creating closer links between land-use planning and transport in line with the clean air plan for Wales.
Lee Waters: Llwybr Newydd: the Wales Transport Strategy 2021 reiterates our determination and sets out how we will reduce carbon emissions by encouraging more active travel, greater use of public transport and by supporting the uptake of low-emission vehicles.
Lee Waters: I understand the argument, I also understand the evidence, and the evidence from the UK Climate Change Committee shows that is not the case, because if you are building more roads, you have embodied carbon in the roads themselves, which are considerable generators of emissions. The production of the extra cars that'll come from the extra road space in themselves generate carbon. And even if...
Lee Waters: Now, there was a series of points made that I will try to address in turn. I was struck by Joel James's argument. He said he's in favour of a clean air Act but he's against disincentives, and his account of what cycling was like left me quite puzzled. We heard about people ending up in verges surrounded by dead animals and litter, which, I must say, has not been my experience of riding a...
Lee Waters: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Members are going to have to answer their grandchildren's questions one day as to what they did when the United Nations issued a red alert for the state of the planet, and based on their contributions this afternoon, all we've heard are attempts to look for wedge issues. That's what we've heard this afternoon. Time and again, trying to divide based on falsehoods. We...
Lee Waters: Formally.
Lee Waters: Thank you for that very fair question. I think Sioned Williams is right to point out that there was cross-party support in this Chamber for a Swansea tidal lagoon, and the UK Government, despite lots of noises, let us down. I also noted in the report of the Welsh affairs select committee this morning the cross-party support for the electrification of the railway line to Swansea, which we...
Lee Waters: Renewable generation in Wales already provides on average half of our electricity. Marine energy, including tidal lagoons, could play a part in delivering the energy ambition we set out in the Wales national marine plan.
Lee Waters: There isn't really a meeting of minds here on this one. Despite attempts by both of us to persuade the other one, I don't think we're going to. I don't think endless bypasses and motorway studies are going to help with the problem of congestion in the medium term and indeed, especially not with the problem of air quality or of carbon reduction. So, we flatly disagree, as we've discussed...
