4. Statement by the Minister for Culture, Tourism and Sport: Accessible Monuments for All

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:49 pm on 24 April 2018.

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Photo of Suzy Davies Suzy Davies Conservative 3:49, 24 April 2018

It's very pleasing, of course, to have such a positive round-up of Cadw's successes in this last year or so. Obviously, I'm not going to say that I disagree with any of these. They've obviously made a difference in many of these cases, and I particularly liked the announcement on foster families. And actually, I thought the timebanking introduction was a pretty interesting one as well.

I did want to ask you, though—. These are Cadw properties. I'm going to make my perennial plea for Neath abbey, of course. I know you can't be everywhere, but Neath is an area of high deprivation, and an area of under-exploited tourism potential as well. While free entry to sites is great, they're actually pretty free at Neath abbey because there's no visitor experience there. So, if you can give me any update on that, that would be great.

I would have liked to hear a little bit more, as well, about how access to heritage—. Even though it inspires younger people, it also has a place in a strategy for the local economy, particularly for my region, based on skills and tourism, effectively. So, when we talk about access to monuments, I think we need to be talking about access to work as a result of access to monuments as well. So, I don't know if you can fill me in a little bit on that.

My next question is about cash. There's no reference to money in this statement at all. While I commend Cadw's—as far as I know—very successful attempts to raise money through its charging system, I'm not clear whether this is a bit of a virtuous circle and whether this primary income, and indeed the secondary income that's raised from visitors who come for free, are ploughed back into Cadw's coffers or whether they're ploughed back into the Welsh Government's general pot, or, if they are ploughed back into Cadw, whether that's used as a reason by Government to reduce the amount that Cadw then gets centrally from the budget.

Then, my final point is: not all monuments, of course, are owned by Cadw. Arguably, I think where the help might start to be needed now is with monuments in the ownership of local authorities. Because I'm not convinced, from the Cadw sites I've visited, that they're still doing their very best to promote other monuments, or other sites of interest, actually, within the immediate area that might be owned by local authorities, or—and I'm glad you pointed this out in your speech, actually—owned by the community or possibly, even, private owners. When visitors visit an area, they visit an area. They don't necessarily hop from Cadw site to Cadw site to Cadw site around the peripheries of Wales. So, if you can update us on what Cadw's doing in terms of access to monuments that they don't own, I think that would be very helpful.

I just wanted to say briefly as well, in supporting and encouraging community ownership, I'd really like to hear perhaps from you separately on that in the future, because I think it's a great idea. Thank you.