The Valleys Taskforce

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:30 pm on 15 October 2019.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:30, 15 October 2019

Well, I thank the Member for drawing our attention to the Skyline project again, and I share her enthusiasm for it. I enjoyed the opportunity to be at the Pierhead, and I particularly enjoyed the chance to go to Blaenrhondda in August, and to meet people directly involved in the Skyline project there, to go and see for myself some of the places that they hope to bring within its scope, and to hear from them what they thought the immediate next steps for them would be. And they did mention NRW to me, so Leanne Wood is absolutely fairly drawing attention to that aspect of the Skyline's work. 

I offered them a further meeting later this year, if the work that they were engaged in didn't come to fruition in the way that they wanted. They were content at that moment to continue with the efforts that they themselves were making to resolve some of the obstacles that they saw in their path. But I said to them then, and I'm very happy to repeat it again today, that if they reach a point where they feel their own efforts are not succeeding in unblocking some of the barriers, as they saw it, to progress, I'm very happy to meet them again, and I'm very happy to work with other Ministers here to make sure that we do whatever we can to help that very exciting project to come to fruition.