I'm pleased to contribute to this debate. I must say that I do have some concerns about this motion. That said, I think that Jenny Rathbone has made some very good points. I think that we recognise that there are some good ideas behind these proposals. And, yes, of course, we all want to see public transport strengthened and active travel routes adopted. All of that we agree with. And there's a need to reduce traffic congestion in our main urban centres and to help deal with the climate emergency. 

I think where I have some issues with the motion is that I think that by placing the onus on the businesses, which then, Jenny, as you said, can be passed on to the workers, it strikes me that this may be a tax that could end up hitting some of the people who can least afford it, which I don't think is the original intention behind it.

Yes, we talk about the metro and that's a great idea, but we're still some way off seeing that realised fully in Cardiff. You mention Nottingham, and, yes, it would be wonderful to have more tram routes, more bus routes and more sustainable transport, but at a point where you haven't still got to that level, I fear that people would be having to pay this charge without actually having that real alternative that you mentioned, Jenny.

In my sort of area, Monmouthshire, in rural areas, the problem of a lack of alternatives to the car is even more pronounced. Public transport is often less than adequate; people living in rural areas often feel they have no alternative but to rely on the motor car. I must say, however, I'm pleased that, since the introduction of the climate emergency and the well-being of future generations Act, there has been a presumption more recently against building and giving planning permission for housing developments that aren't adequately served by public transport, so I think the situation is gradually changing. But I do wonder whether it's a little bit too early for these sorts of tax measures that would directly affect people, as I say, travelling to work.

I think we should be looking to provide positive encouragement, and I think there's a suite of measures here, which you've spoken about, Jenny, which you could, over time, move to fully implementing when those alternatives are there. Of course, we want to encourage people at the moment to use electric cars; those are in the early stages of development and uptake. And, as far as I can see it, this levy would apply to all kinds of vehicles, electric vehicles as well, so I'm wondering whether we really want to do that at this stage of time, when we want to encourage people to change from the fossil fuels to electric vehicles, or electric vehicles on the road, and we should do that by encouraging them rather than doing, let's face it, what would be a tax.

The motion refers to the Active Travel (Wales) Act 2013. It's been a number of years now since that piece of legislation went through this place; I remember scrutinising it as Chair of the Enterprise and Business Committee. A lot of good thinking behind that Act, but here we are a number of years on, and there's still a lot of the aims of that Act to be realised. So, I think, as far as it goes, Jenny Rathbone, you've put some good ideas forward, but I think we're a little bit too—we're not at the point yet where I would say that this charge would achieve the aims that we would like to see, and would avoid penalising some of the people who can least afford it.