Lee Waters: Thank you. My first initiative on becoming the chair of the Valleys taskforce two years ago was to look across the Valleys for existing good practice to share. There was understandable scepticism when the taskforce was first set up in 2016, that people had seen initiatives to transform the Valleys come and go. There was no appetite for more well-meaning initiatives from outsiders, and great...
Lee Waters: Thank you very much, and can I thank Members and the committee for the debate and the report? The coronavirus pandemic provides a powerful reminder that we are still vulnerable to nature, and it also serves to demonstrate that the way we treat the natural world has the potential to impact on each of us, in a very visceral and personal way too. Arguably, climate change represents a greater...
Lee Waters: Thank you very much for those comments. I welcome the tone and the content of the contribution, and I just add my support to the initiatives that M-Sparc are doing in Ynys Môn. I think they really are leading the way in the application of innovation, from a project of theirs I'm recently aware of in hydroponics in food production, but also, I think, particularly exciting is their use of...
Lee Waters: Thank you. There was a lot in there, and not much time to respond, so I'll try and be brief. I welcome the positive comments David Rowlands made about the approach we are taking, and particularly for the cyber innovation hub, which, I think, as he recognises, has got significant potential. I did mention, in terms of the digital industrial clusters, that we are taking up that recommendation of...
Lee Waters: Thank you very much to Jenny Rathbone, and she makes a very strong point. Clearly, we are seeing today the reality and the result of digital disruption—we've seen it in many other areas too. We can see it in the fate of local media, which has been a perfect case study in digital disruption. There's no doubt there's a huge question for the future of town centres and shopping centres as...
Lee Waters: Can I thank Helen Mary Jones for the positive tone of her contribution and for the very relevant questions that she's asked? I'll try to deal with those in turn. So, in terms of spreading best practice and understanding the barriers to change, the way that we've set up the digital centres—. So, I led an expert panel two years ago, before I joined the Government, looking at public service...
Lee Waters: Well, thank you for those comments, Russell George. I can sense that his energy levels are not quite the same today because of his IT problems, and I think it's probably because of the absence of Winston Churchill hanging behind him, who has been a regular companion of Russell during his digital presence in the Chamber. So, I think he's missing his spirit today, perhaps. I certainly don't...
Lee Waters: The Royal Society of Arts has warned that, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the equivalent of five years' worth of automation and digitalisation has taken place, with jobs in hospitality, retail and manufacturing being some of the hardest hit. They argue that the response to the virus is potentially giving false hope to many workers in these industries without a long-term future in...
Lee Waters: Thank you very much. Just over a year ago, Professor Phil Brown published his final report into the impact of digital innovation on the economy and the future of work in Wales. Professor Brown spoke of Wales facing a race against time, with the pace and scale of digital innovation having the potential to overtake our ability as a nation to respond. The global pandemic has brought the...
Lee Waters: Well, I agree with Jenny Rathbone that there is an enormous social justice element to the transport system. The poorest people are more likely to live in an area where they are subjected to higher levels of pollution; the poorest people are more likely to be involved in a collision and hit by a car; and the poorest people are forced to dedicate more of their household incomes towards the cost...
Lee Waters: Thank you very much. I completely agree with him that the location of the headquarters of TfW in Pontypridd offers a real opportunity for regeneration of the town, and I think is a really good example of the principle of 'town centre first', which the Government has adopted for public sector location of offices. It's unfortunate that the offices are ready at a time when people aren't using...
Lee Waters: Well, thank you for those questions. As he said, when the facts change, you change your mind. When he was responsible for writing the UKIP manifesto, he was against the black route, and then the facts changed, he changed parties and he changed his mind. So, you know, I think he's putting that principle into practice there. What did change, to answer the question, is that the costs changed. At...
Lee Waters: Thank you to Dawn for her question, and I must pay tribute to her as a member of the Valleys taskforce and the chair of the transport subgroup that's been leading the work on the Fflecsi demand-responsive scheme. And as I say, we are trialling it in four or five different areas at the moment and the results are very encouraging. And particularly in Newport, we think there is an early...
Lee Waters: Thank you very much for the questions.
Lee Waters: A number of points there. In terms of connecting villages, I absolutely agree, and as I mentioned to Alun Davies, the flexi system of demand-responsive transport, which is also being piloted in Pembrokeshire in a rural setting at the moment, I think, does offer us a way of being able to supplement the scheduled bus service with a more malleable form of public transport that is able to...
Lee Waters: Thank you. I think David Rowlands perfectly outlines the dilemma there. He says, on the one hand, 'We need to have a carrot and a stick', but then he bristles at the stick. You do need to have them both together. The point about road-user charging is the current model that we rely on—the Treasury relies on, as you rightly say, to bring in revenue—will fall away as we move to electric...
Lee Waters: Thank you. I agree with Alun Davies that those are the tests, and I welcome his challenge to make sure that Government meet those tests, because unless we can meet those tests, then public transport will not be a realistic alternative to the car, and, on that basis, our vision and our strategy will fail. So, I completely agree with the aspiration there. Of course, operationalising that within...
Lee Waters: Thank you very much for those questions and for the offer of broad support, particularly for the principle of decarbonising transport. I agree this is a cross-party agenda and it will take multiple terms of the Senedd to implement, and I welcome her comments. In terms of the legal underpinning, then, of course, the future generations Act underpins the approach we set out, among other pieces...
Lee Waters: Thank you. There was a significant number of questions there. I'll do my best to try and answer them as quickly as I can. In terms of timescales, this is a 20-year vision but it sets out five-year priorities, and then the detailed delivery of that will be delivered through a national delivery plan, supported by regional transport plans, which will be developed by the joint transport...
Lee Waters: The strategy we launch today marks the start of a genuine conversation we all need to have about how our transport networks need to change over the next generation, and when Members read the consultation documents, they will see they are the product of deep engagement with key stakeholders in the spirit of co-production that the future generations Act requires. The next step is an even wider...
