I'm very pleased to just make a brief contribution in this debate. As David Rowlands has highlighted, the petition 'Make the MTAN law' was tabled by one of my constituents, Dr John Cox, and I have worked closely with him on that petition and gave evidence to the Petitions Committee back in May 2013. As David Rowlands has said, the petition was tabled after Torfaen council had rejected the application to opencast mine at Varteg Hill. That application was to opencast just metres from residents' homes and a local primary school.

I absolutely think that Torfaen council did the right thing. They looked at the MTAN and they saw that there was a buffer zone there, and on that basis, they rejected the application. It is, of course, not without risk for a local authority to turn down an application because there's always the possibility of an appeal and of cash-strapped local authorities being hit with costs if they lose that appeal. However, Torfaen council did the right thing and rejected it, but unfortunately, the developers appealed and it went to a full planning inquiry.

At that point, the planning inspector seemingly disregarded the guidance in the MTAN policy about the buffer zone and recommended an approval. So, he flew directly in the face of not just Welsh Government policy, but policy that was unanimously agreed by this Assembly. And it was that which led to this petition, really, because we didn't believe that there should be this disjoint in Welsh Government policy, Assembly policy, and what actually happens on the ground.

I'm pleased that we're debating this report today, and I very much hope that David Rowlands is right in looking forward to hearing what the Cabinet Secretary's going to say, and I hope that we won't see new opencast applications. But I'm not entirely clear from this report how this is going to protect communities going forward from the same kind of thing happening that happened in Varteg Hill. We need some assurances that where there is a policy in place, planning inspectors are going to abide by this policy.

I'm grateful to David Rowlands for his kind words to me, but I did just want to raise concerns about the very long length of time it has taken for this petition to come to fruition here. It's been five years, and I think we have to recognise that when citizens or communities approach the Petitions Committee, they do so because they need our help and support with an issue there and then, really. I think it is incumbent on all of us to try and respond to those concerns in as timely a way as possible. I don't know why it has taken so long for this to come to debate today, but I do think that is something that we need to look at, because there's no point having a Petitions Committee if we can't respond in a timely and effective way to the concerns of the citizens of Wales.

I look forward to hearing the Cabinet Secretary's assurances that other communities in Wales—and hopefully, certainly, my community in particular—will never be put in the position that the residents of Varteg and Torfaen council were put in some years ago.

Just before I finish, I would like to place on record my very grateful thanks to Carl Sargeant who, thankfully, did have the good sense to reject the application against the recommendation of the Planning Inspectorate. So, a very big thank you from myself and the residents of Varteg to Carl Sargeant. Thank you.