Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:18 pm on 26 June 2018.
I'm just going to focus on one area and that's going to be the urban tree cover in towns and cities, and support that urban tree management. We all know, don't we, that trees are a valuable habitat for wildlife and pollinators, that they help reduce air pollution, urban flooding and surface temperatures—which would be welcome today—all of which are hugely important to the health and well-being of people living in towns and cities. I'm sure that people in this room who think likewise will share my concerns about Sheffield City Council felling huge numbers of healthy trees in their area.
Now, we know that there is 17 per cent urban tree cover and that we need to do something about that. I'm going to ask you, Minister, if you would have a conversation with the Cabinet Secretary responsible for planning so that, when we try to meet our 20,000 new homes target by 2021, we don't go in, simply, to a greenfield site, strip everything out of it, build houses and try to put a bit of grass back or maybe a shrub here and there to satisfy ourselves. Because it doesn't satisfy ourselves. I think we need some radical thinking here when we're talking about building homes, whilst, at the same time, trying to maintain habitats that are there already, rather than—and we've heard it mentioned today—thinking about large-scale devastation, in my opinion, of the urban environment simply to make it easier and cheaper for people to build houses and maximise their profit.