Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Energy, Planning and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 2:15 pm on 17 January 2018.
Minister, I'm sure you've probably heard the BBC Radio Wales report that indicated that firefighters were called to deal with 68 of the 123 recorded waste fires in the last few years, and that expended about 22,000 person hours to extinguish the flames, at a total cost of some £1.8 million. Mark Andrews, who leads on these matters in Wales and England for the National Fire Chiefs Council, said that increased rates of recycling, which, of course, we want, mean more waste and more fire risk, and he called on regulators to take a much more robust line. Isn't that at the heart of this matter, that we need effective regulation here?