My only regret in celebrating, as I did, last weekend with Ramblers Cymru, Pembrokeshire national park, Natural Resources Wales, a local ramblers group, my old colleague Andrew Campbell of the Wales Tourism Alliance—. We were gathered there in Saundersfoot doing a mix of coastal path and heritage trails, going inland a little bit—some of the new circular routes. My only regret is that Wales beat England to the march on this, but it's a nice regret, actually. I took through the coastal path Bill for England back in—. Crikey, when was that? A decade or more ago. And we're still building it. Now, it's a big thing, but we'll get there, apparently, by 2021. But that will then be remarkable, that you'd be able to walk not only the Wales coastal path but all of the England coastal path as well, from Carlisle to Newcastle and beyond, and walk the whole of England and Wales, should you have the time and be so inclined and have stout boots and make that whole journey. But I guess I am one, Llywydd, of those people referred to as those people who do go and spend money in the local economy. I will walk for miles and miles and miles but then always end up spending on a good meal and a few beers, and probably a nice place to stay in a B&B overnight. And there's plenty of people who do that. It's remarkable—the impact on the economy. And we shouldn't forget, of course, and I welcome the statement today, that this is in the fine tradition of things like the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, the rights to roam, the access to the national parks, the rights of way legislation—all of those things that have opened up the countryside and coast for generations of people since that first progressive post-war Government, and long may this continue. Interestingly, while we were in Saundersfoot, we saw the development there of the new marine centre—the scaffolding was going up and so on—and the magnificent harbour development that they have there, with £4 million of possibly our last tranche of European funding going into it, into a remarkable performance and gathering space on that harbour, transforming it for a new generation.

If I could ask a couple of questions of the Minister—. It's been referred to already, the issue of accessibility of sections, at least, of the coastal path, for those with mobility issues or those who use wheelchairs or mobility devices. It's right that we make sure that the coastal path is accessible for everyone. Also, what do we do for diverse groups that don't normally access the outdoors? I recall we had a very good mosaic project, working with the national parks years ago, that was looking at different communities from BAME communities who, traditionally, generationally, do not go out into the outdoors, but working with them and with people within those communities to introduce those communities—and multigenerational within those communities; mums and dads and grandads as well as the children—to the outdoors. What are we doing on that to make the most of that with our Wales coastal path?

I wonder if the Minister could also speak to her colleague dealing with transport and public transport, to have a look—I don't need the answer now, but to have a look at the TrawsCymru buses issue, because a lot of people I know have made really good use of the free weekend TrawsCymru transport in order to go. I'm looking forward to my free bus pass when I get older, okay—is it 60 or 65? I'll have to check. Not long to go. But the number of people I speak to who are walking sections of the coastal path using either the free bus pass or the TrawsCymru weekend bus and then walking sections back and then catching it again—it's really opened it up. In terms of social inclusion and healthy lifestyles and so on, it's a major innovation. So, if that discussion could happen—.

Could I, certainly as vice president—one of the two vice presidents—of Ramblers Cymru, give my great thanks to the Ramblers—not just for what they're doing with the festival at the moment, but their ongoing work with maintaining footpaths, byways and so on? It is always a challenge—there's a lot of volunteer effort in it—but they really deserve credit for what they do.

Perhaps I could ask the Minister as well for her thoughts on the continuing challenges, because of where we are with funding, tight funding, at the moment. I'm going to try and avoid using the 'austerity' word—. No, it's out there now. But local authorities are stretched in terms of their rights of way. People now connecting up some of the circular routes, on the coastal strip as well, is to do with keeping those normal rights of way accessible as well.

And, finally, if I could simply say how much I welcome this, because of the innovations in here, not least the toolkits for businesses, as well as the circular routes, which should meet everybody’s possible needs—. Long may it continue. Keep the energy behind this. Don’t give up on it. And it’d be interesting to see, maybe in a couple of years, a further economic assessment of the impact of the coastal path on the Welsh economy.