Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:56 pm on 13 March 2018.
Thank you for that wide range of questions. You started by recognising the national park within your own constituency of Pembrokeshire, and I was very pleased as, when I came into post, I committed to visit all the national parks, which is quite a hardship—to go on visits—but the first one was Pembrokeshire. When I was there, I saw the role that tourism played in that, and also the health and well-being, the Walkability Project, as well as the education and getting local schools in as well.
To answer your last question, perhaps, before your first, which was about the length of the process, I think a lot of that is related to actually where we find ourselves in terms of exiting the European Union. We know that there are going to be challenges, as well as opportunities, in terms of land management. What I'm keen to do now, in terms of this process, as I said today, is draw a line under it, and actually to provide stability for the national parks and the AONBs so we can work together to actually take that forward and actually enhance the nature we have at our fingertips.
In terms of the assessment on the impact on designated landscapes, as you can imagine, this is looking, in the whole, in terms of the impact of exiting the European Union on the entire environment portfolio and my colleague the Cabinet Secretary as well. It's a large piece of work, and designated landscapes forms part of this. I'm obviously more than happy to update this place and the Member in due course with any information and data we have in terms of the impact that exiting the European Union does have on our designated landscapes.
You're obviously right in terms of the importance of one size fits all and recognising the different unique qualities of each of the landscapes and making sure they work for the local community.
In terms of directly elected members of the board, at this point, as you said, there are financial pressures on the designated landscapes. I'd be minded not to bring in any proposals that would further impact on them financially, but we are, obviously, looking at how we can actually make sure in terms of actually—. I'm keen to make sure that there are designated landscapes for the whole of Wales and for different communities and, at the same time, to make sure that they are representative of those communities too, and that all boards of public life in Wales are representative of our diverse communities and our local communities as well.