The Creation of a Welsh Traffic Commissioner

Part of 2. Questions to the Counsel General – in the Senedd at 2:35 pm on 24 October 2018.

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Photo of Angela Burns Angela Burns Conservative 2:35, 24 October 2018

Thank you for that. I now understand that this now comes under our purview, as the Traffic Commissioner for Wales is for Wales. In August of this year, he, or his office, put a notice into the local papers asking for comments from people as to a goods vehicle licensing request that had been made by a superfarm in west Carmarthenshire. And, on behalf of the people of Llanybri, Llanllwch, Llangain, Llansteffan and Alltycnap Road, I wrote back to him raising our objections in the strongest terms. This superfarm has been a long-running sore to their neighbours and there have been many accidents and many problems. To my absolute shock, I got a letter back that said, and I quote,

'As Members of the National Assembly for Wales are not included in the list of statutory objectors'— and we're not always a statutory objector—

'AMs are only able to oppose an application in terms of its impact on them personally if they own or occupy property in the vicinity of the operating centre.'

Now that the traffic commissioner has become a Wales entity, I wondered if you would be able to review this situation. I thought it was probably in your purview rather than that of the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Transport, because, whether we are statutory objectors or not, we represent an awful lot of constituents, and I was absolutely horrified by this response because there are hundreds of people who have been affected by that, and if they ask me to be their voice, the whole point of me standing here before you today is to be their voice.