Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:27 pm on 29 January 2019.
Very good news on the announcement on the first round of funds with the new Welsh success of the landfill tax, but could we have a statement on what could be done to actively encourage those areas that are within those five-mile circles around landfill areas that have not yet applied for funding, including places in my own patch such as Llanharan, Llanharry, Cefn Cribwr and Coytrahen and others? And, on that matter, it's good to see that the Wales Council for Voluntary Action, who administer the fund on behalf of Welsh Government, are, in fact, taking part in Chris Elmore and I's fundraising event in Maesteg Celtic on 15 March, so people can come there.
Could we also have a debate on how we can encourage people to use public transport to actually leave Cardiff to go back to the Valleys after seeing events late at night? Because, at the moment, anybody living in Pencoed who's been to the Welsh National Opera, or me having been to see Stiff Little Fingers in Tramshed or whatever, we have to catch the train at 10:30, or sometimes earlier, to get back. Well, that means the choice is, frankly, leave the concert early or it's a taxi or get a friend to run you back. It's not good enough, when you can go to Bristol at 01:30 in the morning, or Swansea at 01:20 in the morning, or Pontypridd at 11:30, but at 10:30 you have to leave to go anywhere on the line to Maesteg. So, could we have a debate on that? Because the Welsh Government's drive to get people out of their cars into public transport is laudable; we need to make it happen with timetabling.