Thanks to Plaid Cymru for bringing today's debate. We, in UKIP Wales, agree with the broad thrust of the Plaid motion. Of course, local public services are a key component in the well-being of the public they serve.

Cuts in public funding are always to be regretted if they threaten well-used local services and facilities. Unfortunately, the reality of politics is such that the reasons for cuts are invariably disputed by different parties. Traditionally in Wales, we have had Labour-run councils who complain that budget cuts are always caused by Conservative Governments in Westminster. Of course, when we had a Labour Government in Westminster, they had to think of a different excuse. But that situation looks unlikely to recur, at least not for a considerable time. Since 1999, we have a third player in the blame game, namely the Assembly, and now we have Brexit as well. For the public, it's all very confusing. I think, from the public's point of view, it's better to forget who is to blame for cuts, at least once the elections are over, and to concentrate on providing the highest quality public services that we can.

Local economies can be helped by local council decisions. Procurement should favour local firms. Councils can also help with issues like parking provision and charges. The Assembly itself is also a major player here with its powers over business rates, and UKIP certainly favours policies that benefit local businesses. Traditional high streets are something we should fight to preserve. Well-run local pubs deserve whatever support councils, and the Assembly, can offer. We still await an announcement from the Assembly Government on its proposals to support pubs in Wales.

There have been some interesting issues raised in today's debate. Neil McEvoy was talking at length about the problems we've had in Cardiff. Now, I don't want to particularly focus on Cardiff itself but, when he talked about the confusing decisions regarding recycling made by the Labour-run council, allied to their decision to close down two of the four recycling sites in Cardiff, it does raise questions, but I will refrain from comment on that particular decision, except to mention that you had a local referendum on that, but the result was completely ignored. This does raise UKIP Wales's position that we need legally-binding local referendums on major planning decisions. Unfortunately, I don't think Plaid are yet in support of this measure. Perhaps you need to think about that in greater depth.

Hefin David made an interesting contribution talking about his own role on Caerphilly council. Now, his decision is to leave the council; he believes that you can't combine the job of being an Assembly Member with being a councillor. Neil McEvoy has come to a different decision, and I think, if I'm correct, we also have a Conservative member, Russell George, who, since he was elected, is still a member of Montgomery council. I think he is. So, in his case–sorry, it’s Powys County Council isn’t it—it seems to be possible to combine different roles. It’s interesting that if we turn the clock back only a few years, there were many MPs who, on election to Westminster, continued to sit on their local councils, and it was thought that the link between national Government and local government was worth preserving and that local councillors should, where possible, continue to sit on the council after they became MPs. So, it’s interesting how that viewpoint seems to have changed. I think in the Labour Government after 1945, we actually had a Home Secretary in Chuter Ede who remained a member of his local council.