4. 3. Statement: The Draft Budget 2018-19

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:13 pm on 3 October 2017.

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Photo of Joyce Watson Joyce Watson Labour 4:13, 3 October 2017

[Continues.]—the universal credit that is going to see people without money for six weeks to be dismissed by a Prime Minister, when she was interviewed on that principle, saying, ‘We’ll work something out’. Well, I’m glad that she can work something out, because I know one thing: when you have no money whatsoever for six weeks to feed yourself, to pay your rent, or to send your children anywhere, you will not manage and you will not be able to work anything out. So, in terms of the protection of the £1 million for the discretionary assistance fund, which is only really a stitch, but a critical stitch and safety net, which was scrapped by the Tories in England and restored by a previous Welsh Labour Government, I welcome that and I wonder how many people that will support.

The other issue that I am more than pleased about is—. And I was a former Pembrokeshire county councillor, and I do have an inside track record on the long and the dubious history of the toll on the Cleddau bridge, so I welcome scrapping that. And there is a history about how that money was both raised and how it was spent. So, looking ahead, I welcome, in the first place, the fact that that local tax will be removed—removed from the people who go to and from work, and from the businesses that operate either side of the county. I do appreciate that time is needed to make transitionary arrangements, but given that the council can budget knowing that maintenance costs will transfer to Welsh Government in two years’ time, given the historic question of how the revenue has been spent over the years, do you think that it might be a good idea, even a gesture of goodwill, if Pembrokeshire council were to ring-fence the toll revenue from now until it’s scrapped and consult ratepayers as to how that money should be spent? This has been a huge area that has been contested by myself and other Labour leaders on Pembrokeshire County Council year in and year out. I look forward to your response.