Part of 3. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Energy, Planning and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 3:18 pm on 11 December 2018.
Diolch, Llywydd. Well, we live in very uncertain political times, and I suppose this may well be the last time in which we shall face each other across the Chamber in the Cabinet Secretary's current capacity, although I should regret it if she is moved on. I've come in the last couple of years to admire and respect the open-minded approach that she has brought to quite a number of issues, listening to stakeholders and local people in particular decisions on nitrates and also on bovine TB, but I have to say that in recent times this reputation that she's built up has been rather dented by several decisions over which she's presided: one, of course, the shooting ban, which Natural Resources Wales has introduced on public land; the draconian fishing laws on salmon and sewin, proposed by NRW again on questionable evidence; and of course what I raised last time, the Hendy windfarm, overruling Powys County Council and her own inspector's report.
Theresa May has been criticised, rightly, I think, for failing to listen and has landed herself in a massive mess, which she'll find it difficult to extricate herself from. Does the Cabinet Secretary herself have any regrets about railroading her policy agenda over the interests of local people and local stakeholders?