Alun Davies: The blueprint for female offending in Wales sets out our aspirations for a distinct and different approach to female offending in Wales. This includes ambitions for the secure estate for women in Wales.
Alun Davies: The community facilities programme, which aims to support communities to develop financially sustainable, fit-for-the-future buildings, has committed £21.4 million to 106 community-led projects across Wales since 2015. Each project represents a well-used community facility that brings people together.
Alun Davies: The Welsh Government is committed to working with communities to help them take ownership of community assets where this is the best option. Successful and sustainable local solutions can only be achieved by working across the public, private and third sectors.
Alun Davies: The Isle of Anglesey County Council’s budget is a matter for determination by locally elected members. The council will be considering how to make use of all its resources when setting its budget and is already consulting local people on how local resources should be prioritised.
Alun Davies: I and my officials have discussed the issue of grass fires with all our fire and rescue services on many occasions.
Alun Davies: I would suggest, in many ways, it's a failure of the political class rather than any particular political party, because let me say this: because things are going to get worse. Because things are going to get worse. We all saw, and I'm sure many of us read, the report of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research yesterday, which discussed the impact of Brexit. We could see the UK...
Alun Davies: I was responding to one area of the debate; I will come to the other parts of the debate in due course. My assumption was that you wanted to intervene on the formula aspects of it. But we will refer to other parts of this. What I would like to be able to do, though, is to have a little more of—how shall I put it—an elevated debate on how we fund local government and the challenges facing...
Alun Davies: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'm sure you'll agree it's been another uplifting debate on the nature of austerity here. I think it is something that does no credit to this place, or to politics, to listen to Conservative Members stand up and decry the policies and the impact and the effect of policies of a Government they claim to support in the United Kingdom whilst, at...
Alun Davies: It is reflected.
Alun Davies: Move formally.
Alun Davies: I'm certainly happy, Deputy Presiding Officer, to meet individual Members or groups of Members in order to update them on this work as it develops over the coming weeks and months. I'm certainly very, very happy to do that, and I'm also delighted to visit Cwmcarn Forest Drive with the Member. I hope she doesn't mind if I bring my family along with me. We've always enjoyed that part of the...
Alun Davies: I hope they'll be available early in the new year—in the next new year. I would expect that we would be able to make more detailed announcements in January or February of 2019. I certainly want us to be in a position to be able to make those investments in the current financial year. So, I want us to move ahead with some pace on that. I also want to be able to announce further discovery...
Alun Davies: The development of investment in the northern Valleys is a point that's been well made by the Member for Caerphilly over his time here, and it's something I clearly share for reasons that are clear. We have discussed the Rhymney valley with the Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney as well. It is important that we're able to reach out beyond the southern parts of the Valleys of south...
Alun Davies: I will say to the Member that I listened to her questions, and perhaps she might listen to my answers. In terms of the childcare offer, it is a manifesto commitment and a commitment of the programme for government for this Government, and it will be delivered in the way that is being described, and it will continue to be delivered in the way that's described. It is, I believe, one of the...
Alun Davies: I'm grateful to the Plaid Cymru spokesperson for her questions. I reflect and observe that when I answered questions on previous occasions—I think, last year—I was attacked by Plaid Cymru for placing in the plan policy issues that were directly targeted at the Valleys, and I notice that this afternoon she's decided to major on all of those policy issues that aren't directly targeted at...
Alun Davies: Thank you very much. The Conservative spokesperson seems to have conspired to ask the same question half a dozen times. I'll try to answer it only once. In terms of the approach that we're taking, we are seeking to involve people from the point at which we begin through the point at which we develop our concepts and deliver those concepts. There isn't—. He asked on a number of occasions in...
Alun Davies: I am pleased to say that we have made available development funding for some of the local authorities in the strategic hub areas. This will commission the feasibility and design of new integrated transport hubs, replacing, where necessary, existing rail and bus interchange and improving infrastructure and connectivity, which will incorporate the key metro development sites. The designs will...
Alun Davies: Thank you very much, Presiding Officer, and I'm grateful to you for providing this opportunity to inform Members about the latest updates that we have made to our ambitions and plans for the south Wales Valleys. This is set out in the 'Our Valleys, Our Future' delivery plan. Just a few months ago, in July, I had the pleasure of updating Members about the first 12 months of progress since we...
Alun Davies: I always welcome a contribution from the Member for Swansea East to the debate on reconfiguration of local services, and the consistency he shows in his contributions is sometimes to be welcomed. Can I say—? Can I say that I agree with the points that he's made? And can I say also that, in many ways, we have inherited systems and structures from the past and that it is our duty and...
Alun Davies: I'm grateful to the Member for her general welcome for the White Paper, and I'd certainly want to join her in congratulating the south Wales extrication team on the world rescue challenge that they have succeeded in winning again. It is one of the great pleasures of elected office that we all share the opportunity to meet people who perform such fantastic roles within our communities, and,...
