7. Member Debate under Standing Order 11.21(iv): Air Quality

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:51 pm on 20 June 2018.

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Photo of David Rees David Rees Labour 4:51, 20 June 2018

Members might be aware that I should be speaking in this debate as the constituency representative of what was only a month ago labelled the most polluted town in the UK. I'd like to put on record that they got it wrong, and that the figure that they quoted of 18 mg/cu m in fact should've been 9.6 mg/cu m, which brings us down to the average level and hitting the limits. So, I'll make sure that's on the record—that's an error of transcribing data.

What I want to highlight is the fact that, clearly, there are issues we need to address, but there are complications. Very often this afternoon, what I heard—so far—is mainly a discussion of vehicle emissions, effectively, and PM2.5, but, of course, in my town we also have industrial issues that we need to be facing. We need to address both, and it's very difficult to address both. I'll try to highlight both points.

Clearly, industrial emissions are part of the historical development of our industry over the years, and Port Talbot—the steelworks—is clearly the biggest one. When Dai Lloyd was talking about the impact of particles and the issue of PM10 from the steelworks—you see that. You can see it shining sometimes in the light as it comes down, and you can see the dust and the particles affecting people. There is clear evidence in our communities where that falls. The number of complaints continue to rise as a consequence of the pollution emanating from the works—they're rising, unfortunately—but I do give credit to Tata, because they have made huge strides in addressing some of these issues. They still need to make further strides—no-one's going to hide from that fact—but we have to look at the question as to what our point of acknowledgement is of an industrial past and an industrial future that give a strong economy. Is it one in which we basically get rid of that industry and remove that element of pollution, but, of course, suffer the economic consequences of that?

That's a very difficult thing to do, and I expect, perhaps, the Minister to give me an indication, in her answer, as to how Natural Resources Wales will be attacking some of those questions, because it's their responsibility to monitor these, and it's their responsibility to enforce the regulations and to ensure that the organisations that are emitting that type of level of pollution are abiding by the EU rules—yes, EU rules, for some of those who don't remember. They are actually the ones making sure that we have those limits, and it's important that we get them right.