11. 11. Short Debate: The Swansea Bay City Region

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:41 pm on 5 April 2017.

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Photo of Mr Simon Thomas Mr Simon Thomas Plaid Cymru 6:41, 5 April 2017

(Translated)

I’d like to thank Mike Hedges for bringing this debate forward today. I think he’s gone beyond the city deal and presented a much broader vision for the Swansea bay city region. But I want to focus on two issues: first of all, I’d like to welcome the emphasis on rail that was included in Mike Hedges’s presentation, and to endorse the need to reopen the rail line between Carmarthen and Aberystwyth as part of the backbone that will maintain the city region as we move forward. I would also like to say that I’m disappointed that the city region deal specifically in Swansea bay isn’t aimed at being low carbon. I think that is missing. There are wonderful things to be seen there, but I think that we have lost sight, both in Swansea bay and in Cardiff, of the zero-carbon element and working towards a zero-carbon economy. And, finally, I’d like to say that there is no better example of how the city region area could work than the Swansea bay tidal lagoon, linking the marine engineering expertise in Pembrokeshire with the more standard engineering expertise in Swansea itself, and, of course, the energy experience of the whole region.