Rhun ap Iorwerth: I would like to make reference to two different cases. The first relates to electric cars, and I give the Government a choice to respond in one of two ways—either by giving us a statement, or by providing a written response. I would like a response to the following statements: how many charging points for electric vehicles are available on sites managed by Natural Resources Wales? What...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Okay, well I take the two words—there was overpromising, it was oversold. I agree, there was an over-promise on what could be delivered and you said that there was not enough delivery on that. We'll get together and we'll go through the Cofnod together and review what you said in your speech, but I'm quite confident in the notes that I've written here. But this is about accountability. It's...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I do believe you did.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: You blamed former Governments for not investing in rail in Wales, meaning that we have a rather steep hill to climb, which is quite clearly the case.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: So, points have been made about the south-east particularly. Others have been in touch with me from outside the Chamber talking about the need to look at the western Valleys too—the Neath, Swansea, Dulais valley areas, where much more needs to be done to strengthen our railways to take people away from their cars. There are concerns too in north and mid Wales, of course. But we are talking...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much, Llywydd, and thank you to everyone who's contributed to this debate today. I know that there's a feeling that some of the questions that were raised weren't answered by the Minister. I'm sure Delyth Jewell will pose those questions again in correspondence to the Minister to pursue some of those issues. It was a debate about one specific issue, but, of course, as expected,...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Will you take an intervention?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Would you also agree that the Pacers were meant to have gone by the end of 2019, and that was a promise too? Promises get broken.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Well, wonderful, but we need to see that now, and it does not take away from the issue that this has already been resolved. In other areas, Northern Rail in particular, where they took that action on time, they managed to get the dispensation. Now, whether Welsh Government was chancing that there wouldn't be a UK election, that there wouldn't be other distractions for civil servants, I'm not...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Okay. Have you had that assurance?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 'Expecting it to happen', but I haven't yet heard what passengers using these trains from day to day need to hear, which is that this will happen, because having an assurance that talks are ongoing, that they hope things will be okay, that they trust that people can get together to resolve the issue, isn't good enough, because if you add the general election into the mix, the Christmas recess...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I've learnt a lot about trains since being elected as AM. I used to do what most people do—just get on a train. It would, hopefully, get me to where I would want to go, roughly on time, hopefully, and that was it, really. But I've learned that making that happen is a pretty complex matter. One of the things I learnt early on as a member of the Enterprise and Business Committee in the last...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much, Llywydd. I'm pleased to have the opportunity to move this motion today, which relates directly to the everyday lives of thousands of people. How we travel for work or for leisure has a major impact on our standard of living. It has an impact on our economic opportunities as individuals and as communities. The quality, availability and choices in terms of transport can...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: By working together, we can make a real difference. And let’s take a lead from our young people, because it’s their future.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: On these non-plastic bottle cut-outs, members of the First Amlwch Guides have each written to me to share their plastic promises. They include pledges to use metal or paper straws, to reuse plastic bottles, and to hold on to plastic until they find a recycling bin. Others will be buying food in non-plastic containers, ditching cling film, or, and I quote, 'Telling my mum not to buy plastic...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I today want to talk about the pledge made by the Guides in Amlwch to protect the planet, and they ask us to help them. As part of their Future Girls campaign, Girlguiding asked thousands of girls what was important to them. And it was no surprise that the environment in terms of preventing climate change and safeguarding biodiversity was a clear priority. And they want to take action...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: You referred there to the Urdd. You will be very aware of the excellent work undertaken by the Urdd and of its ambition to expand its work on an international level, thereby providing an international platform to the children of Blaenau Gwent and to children throughout Wales, to share the values of Wales across the world, for example through the goodwill message. I discussed some of these...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: You talk a good game there in terms of expressing the importance of the preventative agenda. The point I'm making is that that hasn't been reflected in the actions of Government through budgets, and in taking decisions not to prioritise local government in a way that we believe you could have. Now, nobody is surprised to see the Labour and Conservative leaders promising a post-election...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I will return to the funds likely to come from the UK Government in just a moment. May I ask whether you agree with the principle of invest to save? It is clear that investing through local government can make significant savings and can improve people’s quality of life. Investing in housing through local government can improve health, investment in social services can take pressure off the...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much, Llywydd. Minister, can you confirm that the Government is using the period of delay that we have now in terms of the budgetary process to consider how to increase local authority funding, and by how much?
