Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:42 pm on 17 January 2017.
I’d like to thank the Member for his questions and his contribution. I think he is absolutely right: this is part of the jigsaw of the city region approach. I was pleased to see the leader of Monmouthshire council recognise the challenges, but also the opportunities, that removing tolls—or, in the very least, reducing tolls—on the Severn Crossings would have for the entire region, not just the area that he represents. I do think that there is immense opportunity for Monmouthshire as part of the city region exercise—indeed, the whole of the region of south-east Wales—in identifying new opportunities to grow the regional economy, but there is no doubt, equally, that opportunities could be enhanced by complete removal of the tolls. I do believe that the taxpayers have already written off, or should have written off, the debt if only the UK Government would agree to actually carry that out, given the amount in general taxation they’ve already paid, but I also recognise that there is a need to ensure that the modelling for traffic flows is accurate. For that reason, I will be scrutinising the TEMPro 7 modelling that has just been carried out as part of this work. Indeed, I’m sure that I’ll be factoring into my consultation response my views on that modelling and the impact on the wider community in the area that the Member represents.