It is, and, indeed, I agree with that observation. The bridge, of course, is entirely within England, unlike the southern, newer bridge, which is split between England and Wales at its midpoint. The Severn Bridges Act in 1992 carved out some of the residual defects that there may have been in that bridge and issues regarding them from the concession, which meant that the concessionaire wasn’t taking the risk of that, but my understanding is that the bridge has been well maintained. There is concern about ingress of water into certain steel cabling, with three inspections and remedial work on that, which I understand has worked well. Certainly, compared to similar bridges in the United States, it is in a good state.

I welcome the change in other parties towards our position on this. It was that same month, September 2015, when I referred to UKIP launching our campaign to scrap the tolls with our then party leader. A few weeks later, when questioned about the Severn tolls—and we had, I think, a freedom of information request from Plaid Cymru that there were three years from 2011 to 2013 when there was no interchange at all between the Welsh Labour Government and Westminster Government on this subject—but Edwina Hart said, when asked:

‘Well, I live in the world that we actually live in, which is what powers I’ve got, what money I’ve got, and what I can deliver on I try to deliver on, in terms of what we’ve got. It would be very nice to have a different set of circumstances on some of these issues, but we are where we are, and we need to make progress where we are on this. I’m actually not responsible for…anything to do with the tolls on the Severn bridge.’

But, as I’ve set out in the legislative basis, the current tolling arrangements are for the Secretary of State at the UK level, but only up to a certain point, which is hard to project going beyond 2019, on the basis of those powers. If we are looking for a further tolling scheme on the basis of the Transport Act 2000, at least with the southern bridge and, arguably, with the northern bridge, there is a case that that would require the approval of the Welsh Government and of this Assembly.

The First Minister’s position, of course, had previously been that the high tolls should continue and could potentially fund his black route for the M4 relief road. I’m really pleased that that position has changed, and I think it’s very important to credit the Labour Party in Wales and the Welsh Government with having changed that position. And I’m particularly pleased that, in the amendments today from the Labour group, they accept our motion and add two very, very sensible paragraphs to it, which my group agrees and will support.