8. Statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Public Services: The Valleys Regional Park

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:20 pm on 16 October 2018.

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Photo of Vikki Howells Vikki Howells Labour 5:20, 16 October 2018

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. I think it's fair to say that there's an awful lot of goodwill across this Chamber for the Valleys taskforce initiative, but, perhaps, at the start, that was tempered with some cautious optimism when it was thought that there were wouldn't be a discrete budget line for it. So, I very much welcome the commitment of £7 million towards the Valleys regional park.

I was looking through the regional park's prospectus earlier today, and I was very pleased to see the mention of developing opportunities for the foundational economy within that. As one of the Assembly Members who has been keen to champion the benefits of the foundational economy, I think this is really great news. I know, for instance, there may be opportunities presented to communities like Ynysybwl, where there are plans to host a range of foundational activities, linking into the Valleys regional park there. So, I wonder if you're able to expand for us on the potential for the foundational economy within this agenda.

I'd also like to pick up a few other points from the prospectus, firstly around feedback. I welcome your comments in the Chamber today around inviting communities to take part in moving this initiative forward, but could you give us some further details on how communities can continue to be engaged in developing the priorities and objectives of the regional park for themselves? As the document notes, our Valleys communities are not homogenous, and I know that's something that you yourself have said several times within this Chamber, so how will that engagement work reflect the nature of those different communities?

Additionally, I know this is something I've flagged up with other Ministers, but I think there are real opportunities within the regional parks for exploiting our network of disused railway tunnels—that's in terms of active travel links, heritage tourism and so much more. How could you see this fitting into the wider Valleys regional park policy? I'm thinking specifically of the Abernant tunnel, which links my constituency with my colleague Dawn Bowden's constituency in Merthyr Tydfil, and comes out, really, right at the entrance to BikePark Wales. So, the potential there, in my opinion, and I know in Dawn's opinion too, is absolutely massive.

Lastly, last week, I took part in a guided walk of the old Gadlys ironworks. I'm in danger of upsetting my colleague Dawn Bowden, who represents, obviously, the seat that is most known for its iron heritage, but the Gadlys ironworks in Aberdare are actually described as the best-preserved set of blast furnaces in the UK. This was a real eye-opener, but one that far too few people actually know about. Projects like that carry major financial undertakings, and this one in particular is reliant on a team of volunteers linked to the Cynon Valley Museum, so it's really hard to tap the potential of that. Will there be the potential for organisations like that to tap into the regional park agenda and put forward a case for linking in heritage sites such as that?