The following amendments have been selected: amendments 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 in the name of Rhun ap Iorwerth, and amendment 5 in the name of Paul Davies.

We now move on to the debate on air quality and I call on the Minister for the Environment to move the motion—Hannah Blythyn. 

Motion NDM6602 Julie James

Supported by Jayne Bryant

To propose that the National Assembly for Wales:

1. Acknowledges the urgent need for action, including work across all parts of the Welsh Government, to tackle poor air quality affecting human health and the natural environment in Wales.

2. Supports the development of a clean air plan for Wales  to deliver improvements over and above legal compliance for all our citizens, including through:

a) a clean air zone framework to ensure the consistent and effective implementation of clean air zones by local authorities, wherever they are needed;

b) improvements to local authority reporting on air quality issues in their areas and their plans to deal with them;

c) the establishment of a national air quality assessment and monitoring centre for Wales, to advise local and national government on the extent of poor air quality and the effectiveness of current and future actions;

d) the delivery of an on-going air quality campaign and other interventions to raise public awareness of poor air quality and to change behaviour.

3. Calls on the UK Government to back up its stated commitment of phasing out new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2040 with a concrete set of milestones to be achieved ahead of that date, accelerating the transition to zero emission road transport in the UK, and bringing forward the associated public health outcomes.

Motion moved.

Diolch, Llywydd. Improving air quality is a key priority in the Welsh Government's national strategy, 'Prosperity for All', and it is likewise a key portfolio priority for me. Taking steps to improve our air quality contributes significantly to the majority of the well-being goals in our future generations legislation and I'm firmly committed to taking forward action in this area. The need for urgent action is not just about compliance with the law, it's essential and the right thing to do for the health and well-being of our people and communities. There is not one single solution to the challenge, but there is a collective responsibility on all of us and a role for Government across the piece—local, UK and here in Wales. I hope to use today's debate to take forward the discussion on the cross-Government actions needed to improve the quality of our air in Wales.

The Deputy Presiding Officer took the Chair.

Today, we do have cleaner air in Wales than in decades past, but as always, we know there is more for us to do. My aim is for us to be a leader in delivering innovative and effective solutions to tackle air pollution, achieving clean air for all. I'm therefore taking immediate action, through a comprehensive cross-Government programme of work, to improve air quality in Wales. This will include the development and publication of a clean air plan for Wales in 2018. The plan will include improvements to local authority reporting on air quality problems and their plans to deal with them, a clean air zone framework for Wales to ensure consistent and effective establishment of clean air zones by local authorities wherever they are needed, the establishment of a national air quality assessment and monitoring centre for Wales, and the delivery of ongoing cross-Government communications and interventions to raise public awareness of poor air quality.

The clean air zone framework will set out our principles for the operation of clean air zones in Wales and our expectations in terms of how they should be established and what they should deliver, with a clear focus on health outcomes. A clean air zone is an area where targeted action is taken to improve air quality. They aim to reduce all types of air pollution, including nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter. The zones are area-specific, so what works in one city or place may not necessarily have the same impact or effectiveness elsewhere. As well as ensuring consistent and effective implementation, the framework will help to make sure that businesses and members of the public have a clear expectation of what a zone is and how they may be affected by one.

In addition, our development of improvements to local authority air quality reporting arrangements will free up their time to focus on the actions needed to deal with the problems they identify. My officials are currently engaging with key stakeholders to design and establish a national air quality assessment and monitoring centre. The centre will be a major step to securing the live information and evidence needed for timely, coherent and effective decision making on air quality matters at both the local and the national Government levels. This centre will provide a continuous focus on achieving compliance with legal limits and specific hotspots, whilst reducing exposure to pollution more widely, and will help target actions to achieve the greatest benefits in terms of public health and well-being.

My officials will also be working closely with colleagues from across the rest of Welsh Government to co-design and deliver sustained and well co-ordinated action to raise public awareness of air pollution and its effects on health. The aim will be to help citizens minimise their emissions and their own exposure to pollution. As part of this work, I can today announce the relaunch of our Air Quality in Wales website later this month. The reinvigorated site will contain improved air quality forecasting capability, new sections for schools and health advice. A new pollution route planner will shortly be added to the site to guide healthier travel across urban centres.

In July this year, in order to tackle air pollution, the UK Government committed to ending the sale of all new conventional petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2040. This is a necessary and positive step to achieving our ambitions, but 2040 remains a long way off, so I'd ask everyone in this place to join together in supporting and calling on the UK Government to develop, with our support and collaboration, clear timescales for a progressive transition to zero-emission road transport.

Today, I'd also like to draw attention to other work being done to achieve what we all want to see to take us forward to the ambitions of a clean air plan for cleaner air in Wales. Regulations have been laid in the Assembly requiring public service boards to take local authorities' air quality progress reports into account when putting together assessments of local well-being. This now paves the way for more collaborative work on air quality between public bodies. Work is under way with environmental health officers and local authorities to strengthen the air quality and soundscape provisions in 'Planning Policy Wales', and my department is making funding available for the single revenue grant for local authorities to support local action on air quality. In addition, our new national noise action plan, due next year, will further integrate noise and air quality policy in Wales.

We can be clear that it is not enough to develop a plan for air quality in a single silo. I want to see air quality embedded in policies on planning, infrastructure, transport, active travel and public health. We must tackle poor air quality from each and every angle, from national and local plans and transport measures to urban design and the well-planned planting of trees and hedgerows. We can, of course, look to strengthen legislative and regulatory measures, and I'm fully prepared to examine strong cases for doing so. A large part of the challenge we face with our air quality can be attributed to transport emissions, but certain types of energy generation and industrial processes, farming and other business practices, and some of the ways in which people heat their homes, are all contributing factors. These are all areas that need to be addressed by concerted and collective effort across Government and using all the tools at our disposal.

Air pollution very often originates in the same activities that are contributing to climate change. So, our efforts to tackle both must be fully integrated, and decarbonisation in respect of power generation and large-scale industries will therefore play a pivotal part in contributing to cleaner air in Wales. The onus is on all of us in Wales to take action and help to make real and lasting improvements to the quality of the air that we all breathe. With a real will and commitment to work together, we can realise these improvements and the opportunities they provide for a healthier, more prosperous and more equal Wales. I look forward to hearing Members' views this afternoon on where we are, where we should be going, and what more they would like to see on air quality during the remainder of this term. Diolch yn fawr.

Thank you. I have selected the six amendments to the motion, and I call on Simon Thomas to move amendments 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6, tabled in the name of Rhun ap Iorwerth. Simon.

Amendment 1 Rhun ap Iorwerth

Insert as new point after point 1 and renumber accordingly:

Calls upon the Welsh Government to treat air pollution as a public health issue.

Amendment 2 Rhun ap Iorwerth

Insert as new point after point 1 and renumber accordingly:

Calls upon the Welsh Government to publish a national air pollution strategy.

Amendment 3 Rhun ap IorwerthYnys Môn

Insert as new point after point 2 and renumber accordingly:

Calls upon the Welsh Government to issue guidance to local health boards on alerting residents of air pollution levels.

Amendment 4 Rhun ap Iorwerth

Insert as new point after point 2 and renumber accordingly:

Calls upon the Welsh Government to issue guidance to local authorities on how they should monitor air quality outside schools and on active travel routes.

Amendment 6 Rhun ap Iorwerth

Add as new point at end of motion: 

Recognises the need to decarbonise the transport sector and welcomes the provision of £2 million towards electric vehicle charging as a result of Plaid Cymru’s budget agreement with the Welsh Government.

Amendments 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 moved.

Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. Plaid Cymru, in moving these amendments, isn’t opposing the original motion or most of what the Minister for Environment said in what I think is her first speech in the Chamber, given her new duties. But what we are trying to do is to put a focus on where we believe action is needed urgently in order to tackle the public health problem that is air pollution.

Our amendments focus on the need to move away from a plan to a far more statutory approach, where there are statutory duties on public bodies to monitor and take action on air pollution. I make no apologies, as we are sharing Christmas presents from last year, that these proposals are based on the amendments that we as Plaid Cymru sought to make to the public health Bill six months ago. We are rehearsing those issues again because we think it’s relevant and needs action.

And though I agree with most of what the Minister said in her opening remarks, she didn’t mention the fact that the Welsh Government, as well as the UK Government, is facing a court case as we speak by ClientEarth for failings in providing clean air in Wales. Although there is some attempt in what the Minister said to cast blame on Westminster, this is an entirely devolved area, and the capacity to tackle air pollution is in the hands of the Welsh Government.

So, I think, in really taking this seriously, we need to move from a world of plans and a world of ambitions to one of actual statutory delivery and one where we can hold the Government to account. There's no doubt that air pollution is all the environmental problems that have been described, but it's also a real public health problem. It's the second cause of premature death in Wales. It's second only to smoking, which you could say is an air pollution problem of its own, so it's linked. But it's really problematic for children and elderly people with pre-existing chronic illnesses.

It's a social justice issue, and this is something that I think we should take very seriously here. The impact is greatest in the most deprived areas. The richest people in Wales don't live in the areas with air quality problems. They live near open areas with trees and parks and some natural scrubbing, as it were, going on. The 10 per cent most deprived areas, for example, have five times higher levels of carcinogenic air pollution. It's a very clear public health and social justice issue. If we look at those towns and cities, and, famously, Hafod-yr-Ynys Road in Crumlin in Caerphilly, which is one of the UK's most polluted roads, let alone Wales, we see very clearly the association of air quality problems with deprived communities and with communities that are struggling economically as well. So, people are not able to move out of those communities and make their own choices.

I think, in dealing with this, we don't only want to hear what the Minister set out; we want to hear more about what actual targets will be set and what statutory monitoring will be done. I was glad that the Minister mentioned trees and shrubs, but I think we need to hear a little bit more about a specific plan to plant trees—the right kind of trees, because it does actually depend which kind of trees you plant in which areas, as I understand it—to ensure that we have a natural way of trying to clean up our air. But we also need to have a greater emphasis, yes, on the problems created by the transport infrastructure we have, but on the opportunities, as well, to decarbonise that in the most simple way possible, which is to make it easier to walk and cycle—just to make it easier to get around.

Sustrans—[Interruption.] I heard a 'Hear, hear' from a previous Sustrans person there, I think. Sustrans, only in the last couple of weeks, did an examination of the walking and cycling plans for England and Scotland—I couldn't find the one for Wales; I don't know if they did it for Wales or not, but they certainly did it for England and Scotland—that said just if the plans were implemented, not asking for more than the two Governments have said they're going to do anyway, it would reduce deaths from air pollution by more than 13,000 in those two countries over the next 10 years and would save nearly £10 billion. So, we really need to integrate air pollution measures—and clean air measures, to be more positive—into the way we structure our transport system, into the way we build our schools, and where we build our schools. We need, as a temporary measure, certainly, to have a statutory responsibility to monitor air quality outside our schools, because children exposed to severe air pollution are five times more likely to have poor lung development and increased susceptibility to infection.

So, all this, to me, means that air pollution has not had the attention that it deserves from Government to date, and from ourselves as Assembly Members. That's changed over the last year or so. We've started to talk about it more; we've started to take it more seriously. I welcome the fact that the Government is moving towards an action plan, but I don't think we'll address this fully until we put it on our statute book and have a real statutory approach to clean air in Wales.

Thank you. I call David Melding to move amendment 5, tabled in the name of Paul Davies.

Amendment 5 Paul Davies

Delete point 3 and replace with:

Welcomes the innovative measures promoted by the UK Government, such as phasing out all diesel and petrol engines by 2040—and calls for greater partnership links between the Welsh and UK Government on this policy, to ensure the transition to zero-emission road transport in the UK and bringing forward the associated public health outcomes.

Amendment 5 moved.

I move the amendment, Deputy Presiding Officer. According to Public Health Wales, ambient air quality in the UK has, on the whole, improved steadily over recent decades, mainly as a result of a reduction in industrial emissions and better regulation and technological advances in clean vehicle fuels and more efficient engines. But it's a great tragedy, really, that against that generally improving air quality, we still have real problems, and much of the gains are offset by the increasing number of road vehicles, and they're often concentrated in particularly deprived areas, as Simon has just outlined. So, I do think we need to return to this and have a targeted approach, a very local approach, and to realise how integrated it is to some of the wider factors like deprivation—and also the heath issues, which I think are very prominent, and I won't repeat them, as Simon covered that. But just to say, as well as the appalling individual costs, the societal costs estimated by DEFRA are very considerable, amounting annually to something like £27.5 billion. Particulates alone are estimated at £16 billion a year, so we clearly need to take action here very forcefully.

Can I just say that the Conservative amendment, I think, is necessary? Just because point 3 of this motion, I think, is a little grudging and unco-operative in its aim. So, I'm trying to put that right, because we do need a co-ordinated effort across parties and across Government, which, in fairness to the Minister, the tone of her speech did reflect. We would very much welcome the substantive measures such as phasing out new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2040. We should be encouraging a greater partnership with that, ensuring it's effectively enforced, and, possibly, as public opinion perhaps becomes more forceful as well and demanding, then we may even do a bit better than those targets. So, in general, I think that we need to be reflecting the work that has been done in a very pioneering way by the UK Government. I think it's the first to announce these targets, and I do think that that's the type of vision that we should be replicating over the areas under our control.

I welcome, in general, Plaid's amendments, apart from the final amendment, which we'll abstain on because of its self-congratulatory tone, which we don't want to be particularly—[Interruption.] I thought the other amendments were quite constructive; amendment 1 just reiterating those points around the public health aspects. I particularly thought amendment 4 was helpful, in terms of air quality management around schools. If you look at the exposure of children to severe air pollution and the effects that has, it really is quite concerning. I know that a recent freedom of information request submitted by the British Lung Foundation to local authorities found that 57 per cent of them were not monitoring air pollution within 10m of schools. Now, that's a UK-wide issue—I do accept that it's not just Wales. But I think that's a very clear indicator of what we should be doing, really, to ensure that we're driving up standards and particularly protecting the most vulnerable.

Before I conclude, Deputy Presiding Officer, could I quickly speak about the role of towns and cities in these efforts? Wales's urban areas are at the front line of the fight to reduce emissions and to improve air quality. I have recognised this for a long time and called for more significant measures to address this. I am pleased that this is now much higher on the agenda. There was a Conservative minority debate on this very early in this Assembly, in the summer of 2016, because it had not been mentioned in the programme for government—air quality—and we were very concerned about that. So, we did raise the issue then. In fairness to the Welsh Government, they have devoted increasing attention to it, but I think some very pertinent points have already been made by Simon about the need to drive through targets now.

Five towns and cities in Wales—Port Talbot, Chepstow, Cardiff, Newport and Swansea—reported illegal and damaging levels of air pollution in 2016, and it's not difficult to see why and the sort of action that we do need to reduce that in terms of reduced car use and more active travel plans. The problem we have from vehicle emissions is an overriding issue, and these are responsible for about 70 per cent of airborne pollutants. I'm pleased to see a couple of statements of opinion on this, and I have put one down calling for the Welsh Government to pilot a clean air zone in Cardiff. I think that would really be useful. To date, the leading role for local authorities has been front and centre of air quality policy, but we must also recognise the need for national leadership. We've seen that from the UK Government. I think we need to see more now from Welsh Government, but they will have our co-operation when they do the right thing.

Whilst we've amended the motion, I'm sure that we will support whatever the Assembly adopts this afternoon in this important debate. Thank you.

Air quality is certainly a major issue for public health, and also for the environment. I think we've already heard some very important themes that need to be fully addressed if we are to make the sort of progress I'm sure we would all like to see.

Yes, it is a major challenge in urban areas in Wales, in our cities and towns, as well as elsewhere. As far as the towns and cities are concerned, Newport is one of the cities with considerable challenges, and I do think that the sort of issues that have already been raised today are at the heart of making the necessary progress I would like to see in Newport and indeed see across Wales.

I do believe that our Active Travel (Wales) Act 2013 is a major opportunity to make necessary progress. We have local authorities bringing forward their integrated route maps at the moment, and we do need to engage with that legislation, the Act itself, and indeed the action plans, with commitment and enthusiasm. If we do that effectively, Dirprwy Lywydd, we will be making major inroads into vehicle usage, which is at the heart of many of these problems of poor air quality.

We know that, in years to come, we may well see important developments that will help us on this agenda—for example, electric vehicles. But that's not all of the story, because a lot of the problems with particulate matter 2.5, which is smaller than the width of a human hair, come from the brakes and tyres of vehicles. They could be addressed through technological change, but that is outwith the debate around electric vehicles.

So, we need to get vehicle use down, and a major opportunity to do that is through the active travel legislation. So, you know, we really do need to see sustained and re-energised commitment and enthusiasm from Welsh Government, local authorities, and everyone in Wales on that agenda. 

I also believe that, again, as has already been mentioned, we could do a lot more in terms of greening urban environments. I agree with Simon Thomas that it is also about the right type of trees, because we have seen examples where trees have been planted in urban areas and have then created issues that weren't foreseen, or if they were foreseen weren't acted upon, and then years later those trees have been removed. We need to do this in a sustainable manner and we need to do our homework beforehand. 

Taxi fleets—I think I've mentioned this before, and I know others have as well—is a very practical example of something that could be done. They are a major contributor to the road transport vehicle issues in our urban environments. If, for example, taxi fleets were converted to LPG, with costs that could be recouped on average within two years, that, in the short term, before we get electric vehicles and other helpful developments, could help deal with these issues of urban pollution from vehicles. We could take a practical initiative there that would pay important dividends. 

And more widely of course, we need to move faster and more effectively on the integrated transport front. For me, in south Wales, a lot of that is about the metro system, and there are important choices to be made there in terms of the investment that could make that a success more quickly and more extensively versus other uses of available capital moneys.

So, I do agree with many of the themes that Members have already highlighted in this statement today, Dirprwy Lywydd. I think the parameters of this debate and the action that could take place are quite well known and there is probably quite a strong consensus behind what many of us think should happen in Wales. The challenge is obviously to get on and do it, to take these practical steps. And when you consider the issues for public health and our environment, it does have real urgency behind it, and I think we do need to see those practical measures taking place as quickly and as effectively as possible.

I welcome the opportunity to discuss this important topic. As I highlighted in questions last week, poor air quality is one of the biggest public health challenges facing Wales. This is particularly true in the region I represent, South Wales West, which has some of the dirtiest air in the UK, where PM10s are often well above the safe daily limit, and at schools in my region we have had many days in the last few months where they were double the safe daily limit.

Air pollutants are to blame for the deaths of at least five people per day in Wales, and the biggest contributor to air pollution is transport. Since the UK Labour Government incentivised the switch to diesel, the amount of particulates and nitrogen dioxide in our atmosphere has increased dramatically. In all fairness, the current UK Government has tried to reverse this policy and has introduced a new vehicle tax system to penalise the most polluting vehicles. They have also introduced a new scrappage scheme, designed to get old polluting vehicles off the road, and have made a commitment to move to an all-electric-vehicle future by phasing out all fossil-fuelled engines by 2040. I welcome these moves and will be supporting the amendment put forward by the Welsh Conservatives.

This action by the UK Government needs to be backed up by action by the Welsh Government. As we learnt this morning, the Welsh Government is being taken to court for its lack of action on tackling air pollution. It’s time that they fulfilled their duties to the Welsh public. They can start by taking action to reduce traffic congestion, which amplifies the effect of traffic pollution. I would like to see the Welsh Government ensuring the planning system takes account of the effects new developments will have on traffic congestion.

UKIP will be supporting the majority of Plaid Cymru’s amendments. We have said all along that air pollution is a public health issue and that the Welsh Government must develop a strategy to tackle poor air quality at a national level. I look forward to working with any party—all parties—so that we can help bring about a strategy to help air pollution.

We do agree that there needs to be a reporting system to alert residents to poor air quality, but that this should be done at a national level and not left to local health boards. New developments such as the British-made Sentinel Five P satellite, which monitors air pollutants, could be utilised at a national level to improve forecasting of high levels of air pollution and should be used to warn the public about such events, in much the same way that weather reports feature pollen counts. Welsh and UK Governments need to act upon this urgently. High pollution levels kill. We will, therefore, be abstaining on amendment 3 but will be supporting all of Plaid’s other amendments.

The investment in electric charging is welcome, but we have to consider the huge infrastructure challenges brought by the electrification of transport. How can we deliver charging points to those people not fortunate to have a driveway or a garage? I would urge the Governments, both in Wales and at Westminster, to invest in the development of wireless vehicle charging. Both Governments also need to ensure the roll-out of electric vehicle charging is not impeded by the planning system. We have to tackle this major public health challenge head on. We have to clean up our act. I look forward to seeing the Welsh Government's clean air plans and hope that we can all work together to ensure no-one dies as a result of poor air quality in the future. Thank you.

There's a danger that this apparent consensus gives the impression that this is going to be easy, but I'd like to remind you that the car lobby is really powerful, and if we are going to do anything about this, we are going to have to face down the car lobby. I very much welcome the vigour—and, I hope, rigour—with which the new environment Minister is pursuing this important issue, and we now need action, not words. 

If we look at how all other modes of transport have been strangled by the dominance of the car: in the early 1950s, 42 per cent of journeys were taken by bus, and that's down to five per cent today, even though this is, obviously, the only mode of transport for most of our poorest citizens. Cycling: 11 per cent in 1952; 1 per cent today. And the car: 27 per cent in the early 1950s, and now over 80 per cent of journeys are taken by car. So, we have a huge problem that is fuelled by the fiscal and transport policies that have been going on for generations. The cost of a car becomes cheaper and cheaper, whilst rail and bus fares continue to rise and rise. In the last five years alone, rail fares have gone up 15 per cent, bus and taxi fares up 14 per cent, and the cost of running a car has decreased by 5 per cent. Little chance of change from the UK Government, as the Chancellor of the Exchequer has yet again frozen the climate change fuel levy, and today we learned that train fares next year will see the largest hike in five years. And all this while wages are stagnant, so it can't be any surprise, really, that four in five commuters into Cardiff—over 60,000 people every day—travel to work by car.

Building more roads just leads to more people shifting to commuting by car. So, the investment we have to make is in better public transport, in increasing our rail capacity, delivering on the metro, and delivering better and more buses in the meantime, which must go hand in hand with tough measures to address this problem well before 2040. Because we have to acknowledge that the reason that this is such a huge public health issue is because one fifth of all cases of low birth weight babies is due to traffic-related air pollution, with the greatest harm occurring in early pregnancy, before women realise they're even pregnant. We think that maternal exposure to benzo[a]pyrene, which is generated by diesel engines, is linked to mental health problems in children and neurocognitive delay. The level of nitrogen dioxide in Cardiff and Vale residential areas, being the highest in Wales—we know that that is linked to an increased risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Above all, we need to get across to parents doing what is colloquially called 'the school run' that we need to listen to Professor Sir David King, the former Government chief scientific adviser, who says:

'Children sitting in the backseat of vehicles are likely to be exposed to dangerous levels of air pollution...If more drivers knew the damage they could be doing to their children, I think they'd think twice about getting in the car.'

People are not hearing this message at the moment, and we can see the evidence cluttered around practically all of our primary schools, where people are obviously living within easy walking distance of the school because, otherwise, they wouldn't be able to go that school.

We know the benefit of exercise in improving people's concentration at school, yet we still have the situation we have. It isn't children who need persuading, it's adults. In Cardiff and Vale, a quarter of all adults are inactive, according to the director of public health; that is, they take less than half and hour's physical exercise a week—they just move from the sofa to the car to the desk and back again.

So, we need a massive public education drive to persuade people to do short journeys of less than 2 km—just over a mile—by walking or cycling. We need to get tough with local authorities that fail to implement the Active Travel (Wales) Act 2013. We don't need more legislation—we just need to implement the legislation we've got.

We know that imposing congestion zones—for example, in London—has led to an 80 per cent increase in people using bicycles. So, I think that there's a really clear indicator of what we need to do. We just need to get on and do it.

I'm very pleased that we're debating air quality in the National Assembly today, and I'd like to take us from the general to the particular, and a journey down Sandy Road in Llanelli. This is the road, for those of you not familiar with the area, leading out of Llanelli towards Burry Port and Kidwelly. Along that road are two schools—Coleg Sir Gâr and Ysgol y Strade—and along it is another school just up Denham Avenue, Ysgol Gymraeg Ffwrnes. It is the main thoroughfare out of Llanelli, in Burry Port there are now continued housing developments and smack along the middle of the road is the massive new Parc y Strade housing development on the site of the old Scarlets rugby ground.

This is an area that already has harmful levels of nitrogen dioxide, and the situation is getting worse. It is an air quality management area, and the residents are getting increasingly desperate about the build-up of traffic in this area. It is an unpleasant place to walk, it is an unpleasant place to live and, through repeated actions, we are compounding the problem rather than alleviating it.

To me, Sandy Road is a classic case study in the policy dilemma that we face, the disjointed approach that we're taking to this project, the prioritisation of short-term needs and the lack of long-term thinking—precisely what we designed the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 to tackle. This is an example of where such future thinking is desperately needed, because had it been applied in the past, we wouldn't be in this situation now.

I feel desperately sorry for the people on Sandy Road, and I understand their frustration—I understand as well that they're trying to come up with solutions. Sadly, I think many of the solutions will just add to the problem that we've been discussing here this afternoon.

Ray Jones, who lives along Sandy Road, is a doughty campaigner on these issues, and he's pointed out the impact just of creating the new Ysgol Gymraeg Ffwrnes without proper measures to encourage people not to take their cars to drop their children off. He's cited an incident recently where a car knocked into a pram, because, as we know from all schools in our constituencies, there is gridlock outside schools in the morning. His solution, and the solution of nearly 2,000 people who've signed a petition, is to create a bypass along Sandy Road. Again, for those of you who don't know it, the suggested route would be over the Sandy Water Park housing development, which is only some 300m away from the main road, and which is one of the most tranquil areas in the area with lovely nature and close to where two National Eisteddfods were held, where it was rightly complimented as a beautiful place to hold the festival in Llanelli.

So, whilst I understand the desire to alleviate the bottleneck that we have created on Sandy Road, creating an expensive road—we know that roads on average cost £20 million per mile—over an area of tranquility where there is an existing housing development will, I think, not solve the problem; it would simply shift it. I know from speaking to air quality experts at Swansea University—they think, given the location of this likely new road so close to houses and where wind would blow the particulates likely back towards Sandy Road, this would not solve the air quality problem either. 

But these are the sort of desperate measures that people are forced to think about, because we're offering them no alternative. And this is the problem I face when I speak to Ray Jones and other residents in the areas. I understand the problem. I don't think this short-term fix would solve this, but what else are we offering people in this situation? They don't believe, frankly, promises of better public transport in the longer term; they think it won't be delivered. And just as we've heard the case made for a bypass in Llandeilo recently on air quality grounds, people want something tangible that is going to solve the problem in the short term.

This is the political leadership dilemma we face in this National Assembly. It is easier for the quick fix than it is the long-term solution. The evidence is plentiful of what we need to do to change this, and Jenny Rathbone before me has touched upon much of that. We need to have behaviour change and we need to invest in alternatives to car use, and stop building houses in areas where there is poor public transport, and put in improvements as part of that. Carmarthenshire County Council have come up with an air quality management area plan that simply talks about possibilities; they don't talk about actions. We're kicking the can down the road constantly, leaving it to future generations. So, I'd ask the Minister to tell us, while we're asking these authorities to set out these plans, what the consequences are for breaching levels of harmful pollution.

It is time that we tackled the causes, not the consequences. We need a whole-scale review into what has worked elsewhere in the UK and abroad to improve air quality, and we must simply, simply stop monitoring failure and start modelling success. Diolch. 

'There is no one to-day who would doubt that air pollution is a social evil and, being a social evil, should be dealt with immediately and drastically.' 

Those are the words of Gordon Macdonald, Flintshire-born former miner, MP and Governor of Newfoundland. Macdonald was speaking in the House of Lords, but he was doing so in 1955. As his words show, recognition of the dangers of air pollution are not new. Foremost among these dangers is air pollution’s impact on our physical health, and I am glad the Welsh Government recognises this by linking the two issues in its national strategy.

Members may have seen the briefing from British Lung Foundation Wales containing the stark reality of the matter. Air pollution is linked to lung cancer, and poorer lung function for people with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Links have been made between air pollution and cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline and type 2 diabetes. Children in particular are at risk, with air pollution affecting development and resistance to infection.

Nearly 1,300 early deaths per year in Wales can be attributed to air pollution. Public Health Wales has described this as a public health crisis, second only to smoking and more concerning than obesity or alcohol. We have good public awareness of the dangers of these, backed up by first-rate public health campaigns. Air pollution must be a similar priority, and I welcome point 2(d) of the motion, which commits the Government to addressing this. I also welcome Plaid Cymru’s amendment 3, as health boards have a key role to play in this locally.

There's also an important social justice dimension to this issue, with poorer communities suffering most from air pollution. Indeed, the 10 per cent most disadvantaged parts of Wales are affected by five times the carcinogenic emissions of the 10 per cent least disadvantaged. A 2016 Journal of Public Health study cited by the BLF concludes that deprivation, health inequalities and air pollution are linked, with air pollution compounding deprivation-health associations.

Again, this is nothing new. If we go back to Gordon Macdonald’s speech, he referred to a journey to the south Wales Valleys. He described a narrow valley, containing two parallel roads and a railway line. In a 2 acre area, he noted

'seven tall chimneys belching forth thick smoke. On the railway there were three railway engines in keen competition, trying to belch more smoke than the seven chimneys; and the hundreds of miners' houses were beating both in belching smoke into this narrow valley.'

This will be a familiar image to anyone who grew up in the industrialised parts of Wales. In Cynon Valley, a particular culprit was the phurnacite plant in Abercwmboi. At its peak, this produced 1 million briquettes of smokeless coal annually. Welsh steam coal was crushed and combined with tar that was then preheated to remove most of the smoke.

Whilst those more affluent communities elsewhere in the UK that could afford it benefited from the phurnacite, it had a ferocious impact on the local community. It was they who suffered from the dust, smoke and fumes belched out into the atmosphere. Many of my constituents who worked there continue to feel the effects of ill health associated with that.

The heavy industry that was once most closely associated with this air pollution has now largely gone. Its absence has led to environmental improvements; the lush greenness throughout much of the Valleys testifies to this. Simultaneously, we have also placed greater importance on protecting our environment. This has been aided by the development of more mature and empathetic legislation from all levels of government. But there are still harmful factors that we must address.

I tabled a statement of opinion on this a few weeks ago. In it, I urged Welsh Government to introduce a network of clean air zones across the most polluted areas of Wales. I am glad that part 2(a) of the motion commits the Welsh Government to this. I look forward to the consultation on the framework that will underpin the clean air plan when it becomes available next year. We must also recognise that this is an issue where our concerns and intervention cannot stop at our borders. Many of the tools needed to really improve our air are held elsewhere. My statement of opinion also called on the Welsh Government to support calls for the UK Government to develop a diesel scrappage scheme. It is good that point 3 of the motion addresses this, and in fact goes beyond it in calling for a system of milestones so that we can monitor progress.

We cannot forget that we do still have progress to make. Air pollution costs the UK £20 billion a year, and hundreds of lives in Wales alone. Groundbreaking legislation like the environment Act and well-being of future generations Act offer a strong, positive framework. But as we withdraw from Europe and the significant role it has held in this field over past decades, our resolve cannot waver and we must strive for continued improvements.

Thank you. Can I now call the Minister for Environment to reply to the debate? Hannah Blythyn. 

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. You can tell I'm still a novice as I wasn't ready for that then.

I'd like to thank all the Members for their contributions today and I welcome the consensus on this issue and I think that consensus recognises how important an issue it is for us all to tackle, and it's one that should be approached collaboratively and collectively. Simon Thomas was right because this is my first speech—was my first speech as a Minister in this Chamber but I'm not quite convinced by his idea of what a Christmas present is at this point. [Interruption.] Thanks for that. You did note that I cast blame on Westminster, but I was trying to really go for that, actually, the onus is on all of us—all levels of government and across society to take action on this. The Member was right to say that improving our air quality is a matter of social justice, as I think the Member for Cynon Valley recognised—it's a matter of social justice.

You talked about the need to plant trees and you're absolutely right that it has to be the right trees in the right places. I understand there's potential for local authorities in the future to use what is known as the i-Tree software to help them be able to do that and I'm sure this is something we'll debate further, particularly next week in the Chamber, looking at our tree-planting policy in general.

In terms of a statutory approach, we have issued statutory guidance already, but as I said in my opening speech, I am prepared to consider further legislative measures where they seem to be necessary.

I'd like to thank David Melding for his warm words and his contribution to this debate. You're absolutely right that the tone should be across Government and across all different levels of Government as well, because it is right that there's not one single solution and not one single actor in this has the answers to the problems that we face. You mentioned specifically about towns and the role of towns and cities. Cardiff: in terms of the clean air zone framework, the clean air zone framework will be able to guide and facilitate the establishment of clean air zones where they're deemed to be needed, and officials are already working with officials in Cardiff as it has identified the city where a clean air zone could accelerate compliance with EU limit values.

My colleague Jenny Rathbone, thank you for your contribution to this debate. I know that this is an issue that you feel passionate about and I know you're very passionate about how we achieve a modal shift in terms of the transport that we use and how we encourage that behavioural change a well. The issues you raised about the need to look at the development of the metro and buses are things that I've already considered taking forward. I plan to meet the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Transport to discuss those very issues and how we work together on those, and when considering infrastructure and transport investment that these things are taken into account when we do that.

My colleague Lee Waters, thank you for your contribution. The dilemmas you raised just show the scale of the challenge that we face and you're right that we need to bring all strands together and take a much more longer term view of things in terms of achieving behavioural change. I expect the upcoming initiatives in terms of behavioural change that we're looking to as part of the air quality plans to tie into our active travel strategy as well, so that we make sure that we actually do bring these things together across Government, across communities. Like I said, we can't just do this from one approach and one aspect alone.

Vikki Howells, you're right to say that public awareness is a major public health issue of our time, and that's one of the things that we should look at again, across Government, to work with the Cabinet Secretary for health and social care to make sure that all these factors are taken into account and the network of—. I did note your motion and the introduction of a network of clean air zones. The consultation, I hope that you will be encouraging people to contribute to the consultation on this framework and putting forward your ideas and the ideas of the people that you've worked with there. You're absolutely right: we still have progress. Progress has been made. We have cleaner air than we've had in the past, people have more awareness of the risks, but we do still have a long way to go, but I can assure you that I'm absolutely committed in this role to continuing to put that work forward and actually not just come up with a plan, but to actually see action.

This plan and this action, going forward, can be whatever we make it and it's by no means limited to the initiatives that I've announced earlier and I'd welcome all Members' contributions on what else should be considered, and I will consider all options going forward. Diolch yn fawr.

Thank you. The proposal is to agree amendment 1. Does any Member object? No. Therefore amendment 1 is agreed.

Amendment agreed in accordance with Standing Order 12.36.

The proposal is to agree amendment 2. Does any Member object? [Objection.] Therefore, we will vote on this item at voting time. We will defer all voting until voting time.

Voting deferred until voting time.

I propose to go to voting time, unless three Members wish for the bell to be rung. Three Members wish for the bell to be rung. Okay. We'll ring the bell, then. Thank you.

The bell was rung to call Members to the Chamber.

We have waited the five minutes as required for the ringing of the bell, and therefore we now move to voting time.