Mike Hedges: Can I recommend Members read the full report? Because there are some very interesting things in there, not just the recommendations and the committee views and conclusions, which normally most of us read in reports of committees we're not on. On 1 January 2021, the trade and co-operation agreement took effect and established the UK's future relationship with the EU. The UK's access to future...
Mike Hedges: Will you take an intervention? Can I say what you've heard me say a number of times? It would help if both the Welsh Government and the Westminster Government showed their workings rather than just giving us a number at the end.
Mike Hedges: I'm asking for two Government statements. The first is an update on transport proposals for the Swansea bay city region. I've been told that, from December 2022, timetable changes for west Wales to Cardiff mean that there are no trains calling in Llansamlet station from 2.06 p.m. until 4.58 p.m. on Monday to Friday. How are we supposed to attract passengers to the service? Also, can the...
Mike Hedges: There are huge variabilities between surgeries' access. There are some excellent surgeries in my constituency, including Clydach and Strawberry Place, neither of which is my surgery. Over 90 per cent of my constituency complaints regarding GP surgeries' access is about one surgery. When people are unable to see a GP, they either go to A&E or wait until their condition deteriorates and are...
Mike Hedges: Can I thank the Commissioner for his statement? And I very much welcome what he's said today, although, in one respect, I don't, because it's altered exactly what I was going to say in my speech this afternoon. I was a member of the Finance Committee that scrutinised the budget of the Commission. On the information before the Finance Committee, the decision made was, I believe, the correct...
Mike Hedges: I welcome the Minister's statement. I sum the Westminster Government's autumn statement up as very disappointing, but not disastrous. After 12 years of Conservative Government in Westminster and a decade of austerity, the UK is in a deep recession and households are facing the biggest fall in living standards on record—the 'just managing' have become the 'just not managing'. The £1.2...
Mike Hedges: I thought it was a debate. Sorry.
Mike Hedges: Llywydd, you've forgotten Rhun.
Mike Hedges: Diolch, Llywydd. Can I welcome the Minister's statement? The Minister is correct: over the next 20 years—in fact, the next 50 years—Wales faces wetter winters, hotter, drier summers, rising sea levels and more frequent and intense extreme weather events. Many of us growing up in the 1960s and 1970s were used to continual light rain; now we have long, dry spells, broken by very heavy rain,...
Mike Hedges: I would like to ask for two statements. The first one is on the number of organisations who provide only online help and online services, thus excluding those who do not have access to an online facility or cannot use online facilities. I would like to ask for a statement from the Government on how they're ensuring that those who cannot or do not want to use online facilities can actually...
Mike Hedges: I thank the First Minister for his reply. I've got allotments in my constituency that have benefited from the grants that have been available, but there are still very many people who want an allotment but cannot get one. The public sector in Wales, both Welsh Government sponsored bodies, the Welsh Government itself and local authorities, have land that they own but currently have no...
Mike Hedges: 3. What support is the Welsh Government providing for community allotments? OQ58686
Mike Hedges: I don't know how to say it in Welsh, but it is a building that shows Morriston and is seen as the chapel of Morriston.
Mike Hedges: Previously, it was the home of the world-famous Morriston Orpheus choir, and it now regularly hosts concerts for the Morriston women's choir, the Morriston rugby club choir and the Tabernacle choir. It was built to replace Libanus, because that had become too small for the number of regular attendees. The design was copied several times elsewhere in Wales. The pulpit is the focal point, and...
Mike Hedges: Thank you very much. Tabernacle Chapel in Morriston. This year marks 150 years since the opening of the independent Tabernacle chapel in Morriston. Those watching Dechrau Canu Dechrau Canmol on Sunday would have seen the chapel full and would have seen the splendour both inside and out. It was designed by the architect John Humphrey and was built at a cost of £15,000 in 1872, which is...
Mike Hedges: Thank you.
Mike Hedges: I actually believe in the direct provision of services and I'm opposed to the contracting out of public service to private contractors. Did the Commission consider bringing the contract in-house, and if they did, why did they reject doing so?
Mike Hedges: In South Wales West, we have different boundaries for the police service and the fire and rescue service, with the ambulance service on an all-Wales basis. Has the Minister considered consulting on reorganising the fire service so that its boundaries mirror the police boundaries?
Mike Hedges: I welcome the statement by the Minister. Now is the time for an unremitting focus on creating a strong renewable energy future and continuing to establish Wales as a leader for net zero. Wales benefits from diverse renewable energy resources—onshore wind, fixed and floating offshore wind, wave, tidal and solar—all of which can bring significant opportunities to Wales. Renewables are...
Mike Hedges: I very much welcome the statement by the Minister. I agree with the Minister that the cost-of-living crisis is, in a large part, driven by energy prices, as increases are affecting the price of not just gas and electric but many other consumables. Whilst this is having a detrimental effect on all of our living standards, it's having a devastating effect on households who are least able to...
