Lee Waters: Cabinet Secretary, there is some very useful, high-level analysis some very useful, high-level analysis in the report, but I think what's most helpful are the detailed recommendations in the annex section, in particular recommendation 7, on innovation, technology and infrastructure. I was very pleased to see the role of digital woven right throughout the report, and its potential to release...
Lee Waters: First Minister, because of Welsh Government investment, there's no doubt that thousands of households across the Llanelli constituency now have access to superfast broadband. But in the community of Bynea, just outside of Llanelli, they've been treated appallingly by BT Openreach. They were told they'd have access by the end of the year, they've appalling speeds, and just before Christmas...
Lee Waters: It's my birthday in a month's time, and it's often a fairly depressing experience as you get older, because you just assume that your youthful expectations of never-ending progress where people respond to evidence and experience will be an ever onward trajectory. But this debate this afternoon calls those assumptions into question. I was listening to Desert Island Discs earlier and Charlie...
Lee Waters: Will the Member give way?
Lee Waters: Would you accept that an effective way to reduce the number of deaths on the road is to reduce the amount of traffic and reduce the number of cars on the road?
Lee Waters: Would the Member give way? Thank you. In terms of the cross-valley links, it's integral to the metro thinking that we include active travel, because the old network of railway tunnels—the Rhondda Tunnel is the most talked about, but there's a whole network of these across the Valleys, which, for active travel in particular, could make inter-valley journeys a practical option.
Lee Waters: Work in progress.
Lee Waters: Will the Minister give way?
Lee Waters: Would you address the specific point about the need to empower Transport for Wales with the powers of a development corporation to lever in this added value that will be created?
Lee Waters: Diolch, Llywydd. Yesterday, the Cabinet Secretary told the Assembly that demand for public transport is predicted to grow by 150 per cent in the next 13 years. If that’s correct, then it's vital that we make the investment now to ensure that there's an attractive alternative to car use in place. Evidence from the most successful cities around the world, where public transport is thriving,...
Lee Waters: Will you give way?
Lee Waters: Just to help you on this point, the Public Accounts Committee has recently written to the Permanent Secretary on this very point, asking for an intellectual honesty from the Government—when they genuinely don't agree with the point, to say so and give the reasons why. And we've had a letter back this week from the Permanent Secretary saying that the Government will do that, so we need to...
Lee Waters: Beautifully put.
Lee Waters: Cabinet Secretary, when you do the same thing, you expect the same results, and, as my friend Dawn Bowden has just mentioned, when you allow shopping developments on road-based developments, you're going to get more traffic. I note from your statement that the Welsh Government is anticipating a 150 per cent increase in demand in transport over the next 17 years or so. Are you considering how...
Lee Waters: Thank you, First Minister. On Friday night, I held the latest of my monthly public meetings, and top of the list of the concerns of people in Tycroes, just as it was in Pontyberem and Llangennech and Kidwelly, was volumes of traffic. Now, the deadline has recently passed for councils to submit their long-term plans for a network of active travel routes they'd like to create over 15 years,...
Lee Waters: 1. What measures are in place to scrutinise the plans that local authorities have submitted under the Active Travel (Wales) Act 2013? OAQ51489
Lee Waters: This isn't a matter of concern just for nationalists. This is a matter of concern for democrats, and I think there should be a strong message from our Welsh Parliament to the Spanish and the Catalan Parliaments that the principle of consent must be central to any democratic country. I was appalled at the events over the summer and recently—the way the Spanish Government dealt in a...
Lee Waters: What assessment has the Cabinet Secretary made of the potential for taxing parking spaces in out-of-town retail parks?
Lee Waters: I'm very pleased that we're debating air quality in the National Assembly today, and I'd like to take us from the general to the particular, and a journey down Sandy Road in Llanelli. This is the road, for those of you not familiar with the area, leading out of Llanelli towards Burry Port and Kidwelly. Along that road are two schools—Coleg Sir Gâr and Ysgol y Strade—and along it is...
Lee Waters: Will the First Minister provide an update on the implementation of the Active Travel (Wales) Act 2013?
