Lee Waters: Diolch. Last year, we raised our ambition to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, and, ahead of COP26 last year, we published Net Zero Wales, our emissions reduction plan, which we are now working on implementing, and our current climate change adaptation plan, 'A Climate Conscious Wales'.
Lee Waters: Thank you very much. That was a short and fruitful debate with many thoughtful contributions. Thank you, Carolyn, for tabling it and for the work you've been doing with us to help inform an approach on this to work with local authorities to try and spread good practice. You highlighted the alarming rate at which nature is being depleted and many of the practical ways that we can all try and...
Lee Waters: Thank you for the question, and I'm aware of the concerns that he's raised previously on behalf of residents in relation to the facility at the Glasdir estate in Ruthin. It was my understanding that NRW did carry out an investigation alongside Denbighshire County Council last September, which did identify a number of minor issues that then resulted in a notice being served on the operator,...
Lee Waters: Tackling polluting transport emissions has been a focus of our clean air programme of work. And, as I mentioned, the north Wales transport commission and the roads review panel are both carrying out work that'll help us with this target in mind.
Lee Waters: Well, I can reassure Jack Sargeant that one of the consequences of working with Ken Skates for two and half years is that I absolutely understand the need to work cross-border and to work closely with the metro mayor. I can assure you that that's what we're doing. Good relationships were set up when Ken was in charge of the transport portfolio and they have been sustained, I'm pleased to say....
Lee Waters: I certainly share the Member's frustration that the scheme has hit some snags. Let me say a couple of things in response to the points he raises. First of all, I think he is a great champion of the private sector and I would've thought that, in this case, it is not for Government to be leading the roll-out of e-charging; the Government doesn't provide petrol stations and I don't think it's...
Lee Waters: Our north Wales metro programme will transform rail, bus and active travel services across north Wales. We've also announced a north Wales transport commission, led by Lord Terry Burns, the former Treasury Permanent Secretary, who's done such good work for us around the M4 in Newport. And that is already beginning. It's meeting, I think, today, for the first time, to develop an evidence-led...
Lee Waters: Thank you for that supplementary. It's certainly not the intention of the scheme to constrain people who want to plant trees. It's my understanding that the terms and conditions don't do that, and I'd be keen to hear more from you about your particular example to see what might have gone wrong there. In fact, we built into the design of the scheme the ability for the Woodland Trust to deliver...
Lee Waters: Well, I think that's rather a daft question, if you don't mind me saying so, because there was plenty of information when we launched the scheme earlier this year. We made very clear that there would be an initial stage. We really wanted to do something in the last financial year, not wait until this financial year, so we had a soft launch where we had a final six different regional hubs open...
Lee Waters: We must plant 43,000 hectares of new woodland by 2030 if we are to meet UK Climate Change Committee's balanced pathway to get us to net zero. We have opened a new woodland creation planning scheme to support land managers in developing plans to plant trees, and new schemes to support the planting of new woodland will be opened later this year.
Lee Waters: In the last Senedd, we had cross-party support for introducing the policy of 20 mph speed limits on local roads. We set up a taskforce that consulted very widely and involved stakeholders in working through the detail of the best way to design and implement this policy. One of the things it agreed was that we would pilot in eight areas different approaches to making sure that this could be...
Lee Waters: Members will be aware of today's announcement that UK inflation has hit the 9 per cent mark in April. Inflation within the construction industry is hitting closer to 30 per cent, so any infrastructure project is being hit by increased costs; that, I'm afraid, is inevitable, given the way that inflation is running rampant. So, yes, of course, the metro project is not immune to that, and costs...
Lee Waters: We are pleased, clearly, that we've been able to finally reach an agreement with the UK Government on the free ports. It has been a more protracted discussion than it ought to have been, and the way in which it was conducted was not ideal, but I'm pleased that we reached there in the end. My colleague Vaughan Gething showed considerable patience to get us to a satisfactory outcome, and he's...
Lee Waters: Of course, we do also have Rent Smart Wales. I noticed Peredur Griffiths used a phrase about our sort of statutory framework, and I don't think we should dismiss that or underestimate that; I think that is an important and hard-fought gain that does give us an advantage. Any landlord of a privately rented property must register themselves and their properties, and Rent Smart Wales make sure...
Lee Waters: Well, thank you very much to Peredur Griffiths for his contribution, which I thought was very thoughtful and raised a number of important issues that need reflecting upon, and I'm very pleased that Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Government have a radical joint approach to a number of areas of housing and, indeed, a mechanism by which we can discuss this and find shared solutions to complex and...
Lee Waters: The discretionary housing payment budget can be used by local authorities to support those people most affected by the benefit cuts. But this year the Conservative Government saw fit to cut that budget by around £2.3 million, a 27 per cent cut, compared to last year, and this is on top of a previous cut of 18 per cent. Now, this is a huge reduction in funding, and it will exacerbate the...
Lee Waters: Diolch yn fawr iawn, Dirprwy Lywydd. Can I start by thanking Mabon ap Gwynfor for his comments about the Minister's family situation, which I'll pass on to her? Ending homelessness remains a key priority in Wales and is reflected in our programme for government and in the co-operation agreement. The emergency homelessness response throughout the pandemic, and continuing today, has been...
Lee Waters: Diolch, Llywydd. The UK Government has introduced new immigration rules for people affected by the war in Ukraine. These will provide limited leave to remain for people who get permission to come to the UK from Ukraine, and those who were here before the war started. They will, therefore, avoid the normal requirements of immigration control. This means there is no cost to making an...
Lee Waters: Well, Llywydd, as the son, grandson and great-grandson of a miner, it is my privilege to respond to the debate this afternoon, and I think, on the whole, what an excellent debate it has been. Nearly 40 per cent of the UK's disused coal tips are in Wales—40 per cent—and our communities are disproportionately affected by the coal tips. We know that there are nearly 2,500 disused coal tips,...
Lee Waters: Formally.
