The Accessibility of the Senedd

Part of 3. Questions to the Assembly Commission – in the Senedd at 3:18 pm on 22 May 2019.

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Photo of Helen Mary Jones Helen Mary Jones Plaid Cymru 3:18, 22 May 2019

Well, I'm grateful to the Llywydd for that answer and, obviously, there is a balance to be made between safety and security and access, but the Llywydd will be aware of an incident on 1 May this year, when there was a very good-natured and very cheerful demonstration by climate change protesters outside this building, just as this Chamber was debating whether or not we would adopt the policy of a climate change emergency. Those protestors then wished to come in to view the debate from the public gallery. The public gallery at the time was largely empty, and many of them were refused admittance to the building. I am not in a position to establish this one way or the other, but it was certainly the impression of some of those people that whether or not they were admitted depended on their appearance, on whether they were perceived to be respectable. Now, I have to tell the Llywydd that some of the people who were allowed in were women who had gone to Greenham Common with me in the 1980s and would be anything but respectable, where I'm sure that some of the younger people who were excluded were quite possibly very respectable citizens. 

But lighthearted comments apart, I am concerned that we should not be making generalisations. I do not understand why there was any fear that those people who were not admitted would have been any kind of risk. The gallery was almost entirely empty, they had come to make representations to this place about a matter that this place was debating. I, and certainly other Members on this bench, feel that it's highly unfortunate that they weren't admitted, and I'd seek the Commission's assurance that, if there is any policy that if you're protesting one minute, you can't become a member of the public observing the proceedings the next, that policy will be changed.