Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:11 pm on 10 July 2018.
Presiding Officer, one of the issues that was raised with us at almost every public event we've done over the last two years has been the issue of local transport. Most people raise issues around local buses rather than the metro system, and I think it's important that we do recognise that, in developing the metro, we are developing and delivering a transport network that does go beyond simply the trains that quite often form the highlights of that. So, we will be ensuring that transport links lie at the heart of what we're doing. When we identified the seven strategic hubs, we identified areas that were accessible by public transport and areas that would be served by the metro in the future so that we do have a spatial and strategic view of where we will be focusing investment in the future, and the metro will form an absolutely essential part of that.
In terms of the issues that the UKIP spokesperson raises on apprenticeships and training, clearly, we will be ensuring that the employability programme that the Minister for Welsh Language and Lifelong Learning has launched is active in the Valleys, and it has a focus on the Valleys. We're also developing a shared apprenticeship model in Merthyr Tydfil that will ensure that we are able to develop and learn the lessons of some of the other projects, such as the Aspire project, based in my own constituency, which will ensure that we have a means of delivering skills, training and apprenticeships that is sustainable and reaches all the different parts of the Valleys, and the different skills required for sustainable jobs in the Valleys.
But can I say that the UKIP spokesperson makes a point of ensuring that local people are involved in the design of all of these different projects and programmes? We have rooted all that we've done in the ambitions that have been shared with us from people in and around the communities of the Valleys. This hasn't simply been co-produced in the way that the Conservative spokesperson has said, but it's been rooted in the ambitions and the visions of people throughout the whole of the Valleys region. We have spent time and we have invested time not simply in talking with people, but listening to what those people have said to us. And one of the key things they've said to us—and the Plaid Cymru spokesperson referred to this in his remarks—has been that all too often expectations have been raised only for those hopes to be dashed. What I want to be able to do through this programme of listening and talking, and by publishing a delivery plan, is to be held to account for the promises that we make, so that people here—Members on all sides of the Chamber here—will be able to hold us to account for what we deliver and what we say we will deliver, the timetables and the targets that we set, but, at the same time, people across the Valleys will be able to hold us to account as well. And I think, in terms of winning and rebuilding trust in politics, that is essential for the future.