Diolch, Llywydd.

It’s a curious position I find myself in as the Minister responding to this debate. I’m thrilled to be given the opportunity to try and advance this agenda and turn into reality some of the things I’ve been saying for some time. It’s a nice touch that I have Dafydd Elis-Thomas sitting next to me, because it was to Dafydd, when he was the Presiding Officer in October 2007, that I handed the petition that started the process to create the active travel Act. So, I think it’s appropriate that he stands beside me at my first outing as Minister to respond to this debate.

It is ambitious legislation, and I welcome the motion, and the Government will be supporting it. Ambitious we must be. The legislation itself, we mustn’t forget, is ambitious, and it’s particularly ambitious because it’s trying to create a culture that doesn’t exist, and that is difficult, and that will take generations to do. But we must put in place solid foundations. One of the key things it seeks to do is to make walking and cycling, active travel, the normal thing to do for everyday journeys—not just for leisure journeys, not putting Lycra on for sport, but for getting around every day for the majority of journeys that we make. And that requires a different mindset, and it requires a different culture. It does require motorists to be more considerate of people on foot or by bike, and it requires for us all to see that as not an eccentric act. Because, for too long, it’s been seen as a slightly odd thing to do, and that kind of oddness then encourages a confrontational mindset on the road, which really isn’t helpful and needs to be got rid of.

I’d be happy to take interventions through what I have to say this afternoon. I’m entering this agenda in a spirit of cross-party consensus. This is an agenda that has had all-party support since the outset, and it’s an agenda that I hope will continue to have all-party support, and there’s no reason why it shouldn’t do so. The report that Russell George cited earlier was agreed unanimously by the economy committee. I was proud to be part of it. I stand by everything I said in those speeches, and now is the task for us all to work together to achieve that. And an important part of achieving that is challenge. And I think consistent with the cross-party support is challenge from across the Chamber on me as the Minister and us as the Government to deliver on the promises.