Lee Waters: We have a privatised bus system, as I've explained on many occasions, which is a legacy of Conservative privatisation in the 1980s, and we are living with the reality of that now, and it has failed; the business model has failed, there is market failure here, and we're going to see cuts and a disappearing of vital public services. None of us want to see that, but we're also living in an age...
Lee Waters: Well, thank you for raising the question, because it is an issue that is concerning us greatly. Clearly, this is not a happy situation. We have a privatised bus network, which relies on commercial operators being able to make a profit. Clearly, the pandemic has turned that business model on its head and it was our intervention, with £150 million of public investment, that kept the sector...
Lee Waters: An initial extension of three months gives the industry the stability it needs in the short term while we continue to work together with them and local government on planning bus networks that better suit the new travel patterns that we've seen since the end of the pandemic.
Lee Waters: One of my great frustrations is how long everything takes in transport. One of the tensions we have is we have climate science that tells us that we need to act urgently, and we have systems that take forever. If only we could embrace some of the innovation that we saw during the pandemic, when we saw pop-up bike lanes put in place at break-neck speed, in all fairness to local government, but...
Lee Waters: Well, I know that Adam Price is committed to seeing this scheme through. The words in the transport plan are clear. They are the same words that we jointly agreed between our parties in the budget agreement. As I said earlier, we'll progress to the next step of that process. In terms of the status of policy, we now have a roads policy statement that is Welsh policy, so that will apply to all...
Lee Waters: Thank you. Again, I appreciate you haven't had long to look at it, but I think you'll find in the national transport delivery plan there is mention of the scheme, that it will be subject to the test, like any other scheme is. And as you say, it is largely in England, but we are expected to pay a disproportionate share of the costs ourselves, given how little is in Wales. But that would be...
Lee Waters: In terms of the geographical spread, of the 17 schemes that are going ahead in the national transport delivery plan, five are in north Wales, five are in mid Wales, so I don't think the case that there's geographical bias here stands scrutiny. And I don't accept the idea that we should not have a national approach to transport and roads building. So, I don't agree with the Member about that....
Lee Waters: I'm not familiar with the detail of the example she quotes, but I would say in general the key finding—. One of the tests we've set for future road schemes is minimising the amount of embedded and embodied carbon that is involved. That implies that we'd use less carbon-intensive materials, so we'd need fewer materials overall. That may well have knock-on consequences. But, rather than give...
Lee Waters: Well, I'm sure you've had a chance to look at—perhaps not in full yet—the reasons set out for the three schemes in the roads review. For example, on the Maes Gamedd road junction improvement on the A494, the review panel says that it 'should not proceed in its current form. The safety of the junction should continue to be monitored. Further options to reduce speed and improve the...
Lee Waters: Thank you. I understand Vikki Howells's position on this road, and she's been consistent in her campaigning for it. The roads review examined it, and they set out in detail in their report the reasons why they don't think it's compliant with the tests that it has set, and we've agreed with, to develop as a road scheme. That said, we have said in our national transport delivery plan, and in...
Lee Waters: Well, as the Member knows, I've already agreed to meet with him and a delegation from Llanbedr to discuss the issue. I'm slightly gobsmacked by his claims of a lack of action, when we have been trying repeatedly to make progress with the local authority, who have not engaged in a way that has brought progress with us. We've had meetings—they've certainly turned up to meetings—but we've...
Lee Waters: Well, I sincerely am sorry to burst your bubble, Janet. It is hard to keep up, I must say, because when we made the decision not to go ahead with the roundabout changes, you told me that you were in favour of the decision. You're now against the decision. So, it's quite confusing. The point about those roundabouts, like the other decisions made in the roads review, is that, when schemes were...
Lee Waters: Of course, I agree with that, and I said earlier that we need to make the right thing to do the easiest thing to do. We need public transport to be on the doorstep for people to turn up and go. And one of the purposes of redirecting our roads pipeline is to free up finance in future years to allow that investment to take place. We are suffering at the moment from past decisions and from, as...
Lee Waters: Thank you for that, and it's a consistent position that Jane Dodds has taken on these issues, and I appreciate it. On the point of rural areas, which I know is something that the Conservatives have been raising too, I fully accept that, in rural areas, you need a different approach to urban areas. It's entirely possible to do that. If you look at rural Switzerland or rural Sweden or rural...
Lee Waters: Thank you.
Lee Waters: —we would have a richer debate. The issue of spending on active travel being below where we would have seen it is an issue of capacity in local authorities. That is an issue we are addressing with local authorities, who simply can't spend the budget we are making available for them. That's why the money is where it is. So, I do hope that we can all do better than this, because it's not...
Lee Waters: First of all, Deputy Presiding Officer, given the complaints that have been made in this Chamber about the use of language around mental health recently, I would question whether the use of the term 'insane' is appropriate. The Conservatives have made criticisms about other Members, and I think they should apply that to their own. Perhaps I'd ask you to consider that when you examine the...
Lee Waters: Thank you. I respect Jack Sargeant's point of view, and I was pleased to meet with him and Mark Tami to talk through the issues. I understand the strength of feeling there is in the local area to address the air quality concerns, and that is why we have decided to look at Aston Hill as a separate case. We will look with the local authority to develop solutions that will bring some short-term...
Lee Waters: Perhaps I can explain. I realise there are lots of documents for Members to digest in a short period of time. I did provide a briefing to Plaid Cymru this morning to try and allow you to understand the contours of the decision making here. The roads review is not a report of the Welsh Government; it's an independent report. You're quoting there, accusing us of running contradictory to our own...
Lee Waters: Well, thank you for the question, and can I first of all apologise that the statement wasn't given to you in good time? It certainly was the intention. I think we started a little earlier and, as a result, there was a delay in getting it before I got on my feet, but that was a sin of omission not commission, and I did in fact meet with Natasha Asghar this morning and briefed her and talked...
