Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 2:03 pm on 13 November 2019.
I'm sure you'll enjoy working with the next Conservative Government as well in Westminster. [Interruption.] Touché Turtle. Thank you for your answer, and I think we all welcome the declaration of a climate emergency. But it strikes me—. I welcome the 95 per cent target as well, which you've set, but it strikes me that it's only really going to achieve its aim if it's mainstreamed across all departments, not just by yourself and your officials, and across public bodies, with some real behavioural changes at the end of those policy changes. And I think electric charging points, for instance, are one example of an area where—. Wales needs far more electric charging points than we've had in the past. But only last year an application for a new charging hub in Monmouth, in my constituency, was turned down due to it breaching technical advice note 15 rules, much to the dismay of local people. I wonder if you could see if Welsh Government policies, including the TANs and the planning polices, are revisited so that they can be more flexible when decisions are being taken that will actively promote the environment. I'm not saying they should be disregarded; in many cases, they're there for a reason. But I think if we are all trying to make sure that this climate change emergency really does work and we do solve the long-term environmental and climate problems that we've got, then we need to make sure that these policies are more flexible.