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: 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. 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 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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. 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: 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: 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: 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: Thank you very much, Joyce Watson. I wasn't aware of the project that you refer to in Pembrokeshire; it sounds very interesting and I'd like to find out more about it, and to properly answer your question about what lessons can be learned from it. So, if you're willing, I will go away, find out more and write to you about that. I completely agree, as I set out earlier, that the potential of...
Lee Waters: Thank you, Janet. I think that is a fair challenge. Clearly, as the science indicates, these are going to become more and more frequent occurrences, and the ability of all agencies and all parts of Government—local and central—to deal with them is going to be incredibly challenged. There are lessons for us to learn from the flooding in Pentre and in the Rhondda Cynon Taf area a couple of...
Lee Waters: Thank you very much. Could I echo what I said about Huw Irranca-Davies about Jenny Rathbone as well, who's been a passionate advocate of this agenda? I very seriously appreciate her efforts and look forward to continuing her challenge. She raised a series of questions about housing. As Julie James explained earlier, the carving up of this mammoth portfolio is a daily challenge. One of the...
Lee Waters: First of all, can I just pay a very sincere tribute to Huw Irranca-Davies for the role that he's played, both before he came to the Senedd, in Westminster as a Minister and as Chair of a select committee, and since he's come here? I worked very closely with him in the cross-party group on active travel in the last Senedd and I hope to continue to do so again. I think we've made real progress....
Lee Waters: Thank you for that, and particularly for the references to Venus and the moon. It's not often that they feature in our discussions on climate change. I completely agree, as I've just set out, on the role that tree planting on a family and community level can have. I'm very keen to understand what barriers might stand in the way and make some recommendations to the Senedd before the end of the...
Lee Waters: Thank you for that series of questions. I completely agree that the changes post EU—to what were structural funds—are very, very troubling. As Delyth Jewell said, we have over a number of years developed a strategic approach for a range of programmes, particularly focused on biodiversity and climate change, which now don't neatly fit into the structures the UK Government has set out....
