Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Public Services – in the Senedd at 2:33 pm on 29 November 2017.
I was wondering—if we could step back a little bit as well—if we can ask ourselves a deeper question, which I'm not sure is sufficiently addressed yet in the plan that has been published, which is why the initiatives of the past have failed. Because the most sobering reading of all—. I urge honourable—oh, falling into bad habits there. I urge Members to read the engagement study, which is actually based on surveys with people in the Valleys about how they see things. And it's sobering reading indeed: 45 per cent saying that the state of their town centres were poor; 54 per cent saying that support for businesses was poor; 30 per cent saying that the local health services were poor; 45 per cent, poor transport services. And we have to ask ourselves why are we in this position. And unless we have a sufficient analysis and an honest analysis—and I realise that, for a Government that has been in power for the best part of two decades, that is a difficult question to ask—but, unless we ask it, then we are condemned, are we not, to repeat the failures of the past?