For those of you who don’t know, the city of St David’s is built on the site of the monastery founded by St David in the sixth century, who is of course the patron saint of Wales. Therefore, the city of St David’s is not just a cultural asset to Pembrokeshire, but to west Wales and of course to Wales as a whole. So, while St David’s may be UK’s smallest city in terms of geography, I believe it’s one of the largest cities when it comes to cultural value.

St David himself died in the year 589 and legend tells us that the monastery is said to have been filled with angels as Christ received his soul. Of course, to this day, the city of St David’s still holds a special place in the Christian community. The cathedral has been a site of pilgrimage and worship for more than 800 years and continues to attract thousands of visitors a year.

Indeed, I was delighted to recently attend the enthronement of Wales’s first female bishop at St David’s cathedral, alongside other Members, which just shows that the cathedral continues to have a significant role in Welsh Christianity today.

However, St David’s is not known solely for its importance to Christian heritage. Therefore, I’d like to take this opportunity to encourage all Members in this Chamber to make an effort to visit the local area and see for yourself just what St David’s has to offer, because there really is something for everyone.

The city is home to some of the most incredible beaches in the world. May I remind Members that St David’s is in Pembrokeshire Coast national park, which is the UK’s only coastline national park? St David’s has also played its part in promoting the Welsh language and keeping it alive by hosting the National Eisteddfod in 2002, again demonstrating the city’s national importance to Wales’s culture.

The guidance for the UK City of Culture bidding process stipulates that it is seeking bids that demonstrate cultural and artistic excellence and innovation and I believe that St David’s does that extensively.

I’ve explained a little bit about St David’s cultural significance but it’s important to remind Members that St David’s also has a thriving artistic community with art constantly being exhibited on a variety of platforms, such as on canvas, glass and sculpture. St David’s is home to Oriel y Parc gallery and visitor centre, which has a class A gallery displaying works of art from the National Museum Wales collection and an artist-in-residence studio, further demonstrating the area’s commitment to art.

My understanding is that the overarching ambition of the St David’s bid is to improve the well-being of all those touched by the involvement of St David’s in the City of Culture programme. As Members are aware, art and culture have the power to have a significant positive benefit on people’s well-being. The Royal Society for Public Health’s report in 2013 showed that access to and involvement in creative activity and the arts in all its forms is an important component in both the overall health and well-being of society and for individuals within it.

The Arts Council of Wales’s ‘Arts in Wales 2015’ survey shows that half of all adults with a disability are inspired by artistic activity and enjoy getting involved, and that three out of five adults in Wales agree or agree strongly that arts and cultural activity help enrich the quality of life.

Therefore, if Members take anything from this afternoon’s debate, let it be a better understanding of the importance of St David’s to Wales’s cultural and artistic identity and the impact that a bid like this could have on people’s well-being. A bid for St David’s to become the UK City of Culture in 2021 would be a public recognition of the area’s cultural and artistic capital, and in the event that St David’s is the only Welsh bid in the competition, I’m pleased that the Welsh Government has indicated it will support the bid.

The Cabinet Secretary made it clear in response to a question that I asked a few weeks ago that he would be meeting with the respective organisers of any Welsh bids in the coming weeks. Therefore, perhaps in responding to this debate, the Cabinet Secretary could update Members on where he is with those discussions. At a local level, I understand that discussions with Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority and partners on the Pembrokeshire public service board have been very supportive, and I welcome that. It’s absolutely vital that as many stakeholders as possible come together to support this bid, because it is only by working together that St David’s will have a shot at winning this competition.

The bid must demonstrate an ambitious vision for what St David’s will achieve in 2021 and afterwards, and so the bid would be significantly strengthened by support and evidence from partners such as Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority, Pembrokeshire County Council and the Welsh Government. I agree with the leader of Pembrokeshire County Council, Jamie Adams, when says that ‘I believe in St David’s we have something very different; it’s not all about big proposals, but it’s about impact in terms of the city itself’. The support from Pembrokeshire County Council is particularly welcome, because if the bid is successful, then the council will have a key role to play in ensuring that the local tourism and transport infrastructure has the capacity to deal with the additional visitors to the area. Indeed, the guidance for the bidding process not only asks for evidence of the area’s cultural and artistic strengths, but also the likely social and economic impacts estimated for the area should the bid be successful. I’m pleased that in the last few days, Pembrokeshire County Council’s cabinet has agreed to provide a capital guarantee of £5 million to support the city’s stage 1 application.

Of course, if St David’s is fortunate enough to actually win the competition, then the benefits for the area will be felt for years to come. The UK City of Culture programme would give St David’s access to key funding and resources that would not just help regenerate the local area, but showcase the very best of St David’s local culture to the rest of the world. It would also build on Pembrokeshire’s strong tourism reputation, because the additional marketing and promotion of St David’s would certainly result in attracting more visitors to the area. We know that the full impact of the UK City of Culture on Londonderry is yet to be fully evaluated, but initial research from the Northern Ireland tourist board shows that it delivered a significant positive impact, with recognition that the benefit is not just felt by Londonderry, but further afield too. According to their report, 87 per cent of tourism businesses from the north-west of Ireland felt a positive impact on tourism revenue, and the industry also endorsed the legacy effect of the UK City of Culture for future tourism growth. It’s exactly this sort of impact that we want to see in St David’s and right across Pembrokeshire and west Wales.

Pembrokeshire has already established a strong reputation for delivering a first-class tourism experience, and we know the area contributes significantly to the Welsh economy. Pembrokeshire was once named the second best coastal destination in the world according to the ‘National Geographic’ magazine, and it’s essential that we do all that we can to support and promote these types of areas. A successful bid for St David’s to become the UK City of Culture would naturally result in more people spending money in the St David’s area and providing the local economy with a welcome boost. Therefore, support for the St David’s bid to become the UK City of Culture in 2021 would result in support for the Welsh Government’s target to grow tourism earnings in Wales by 10 per cent or more by 2020.

This engagement really underlines the most important outcome that bidding for this competition will deliver—partnership working. Whether the St David’s bid goes on to win the national competition or not, the collaborative working of partners across west Wales, and hopefully beyond, will in itself have a positive impact. The bringing together of partners within and across different sectors and Government departments to rethink how we promote ourselves can’t be a bad thing for the area. I hope that bidding for the UK City of Culture will also result in a re-energised approach to how we view culture in our communities. Of course, the foundations of a successful bid are already there, but Welsh Government support for a St David’s bid would garner more national widespread support across Wales and make the bid a serious contender. But I appreciate that there are other bids being considered at the moment. It would further extend the level of partnership working for the benefit of west Wales, and make a statement that the Welsh Government is invested in Welsh culture right across the country.

Therefore, in closing, the current cultural and creative economy in the St David’s area and indeed, in the whole of Pembrokeshire, provides a sufficient base on which to build a strong application to become the next UK City of Culture.

St David’s boasts a wealth of cultural assets, from Christian architecture and history to contemporary art and music, and is the home of our own patron saint. A successful bid for the UK City of Culture will cement St David’s growing cultural reputation and create a lasting legacy for years to come. Therefore I sincerely hope that St David’s will receive the support that it deserves so that it does become the next UK City of Culture in 2021.