3. Business Statement and Announcement

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:03 pm on 21 May 2019.

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Photo of Jenny Rathbone Jenny Rathbone Labour 3:03, 21 May 2019

I'd like to call for two statements. Firstly, late last week we learned that the latest scientific thinking is that air pollution penetrates every single organ in our body, and the World Health Organization is calling this an air pollution emergency. I was very grateful to hear that the Conservative Party is supporting the call for a clean air zone in Cardiff, as well as in Wrexham, Newport and Swansea, and I will make sure that the leader of Cardiff council is aware of that. Pending the action that Cardiff council must take to protect its citizens, based on extensive UK Government research that shows that deterring polluting vehicles from city centres and towns is by far the most cost-effective way to cut nitrogen dioxide pollution, could we in the light of the latest scientific thinking on this matter have a statement from the Minister for health about what Public Health Wales is doing to promote the actions that public authorities must take to protect us all? For example, encouraging more walking and cycling for short journeys is one of the asks that the scientists are calling for.

Secondly, and in relation to this, Julie Morgan and I, amongst other elected representatives from Cardiff and Newport, went on a mystery bus tour on Friday on an electric bus, which was absolutely fantastic, with all the latest Wi-Fi, really comfortable—absolutely the opposite to the image that bus travel has. Cardiff is now exploring procuring large numbers of this particular bus, which is produced in Scarborough in partnership with BYD, which is based in China. It's very exciting, because they won this Welsh Government award to clean up their public transport—with £5.7 million from the Welsh Government. I wondered if we could have a statement from the Minister for Economy and Transport on how we're going to roll out electric buses across our cities in Wales, not just in Cardiff. Thank you very much.