South East Wales Transport Commission

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:10 pm on 26 November 2019.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:10, 26 November 2019

Well, Llywydd, I thank Jayne Bryant for that supplementary question and the important points that she makes. I can give her an assurance, Llywydd, that, when I first met Lord Burns, in an attempt to persuade him to take on this important work, one of the points that he made to me then was that he would only be interested to do it if he had the scope directly to talk to people in Newport and others affected by the problem that he is going to help us to solve. And you will see that in the 'Our Approach' document, where Lord Burns says that the commission intends closely to involve stakeholders in its work. And one of its top priorities is to understand the choices made by people living, working and travelling in south-east Wales, and in particular, users of the M4 around Newport.

The same part of the 'Our Approach' document then sets out how the commission intends to communicate with those wider discussions with the public of the sort that Jayne Bryant has referred to, happening today. Stakeholder meetings and workshops, using social media as a way of reaching people who might not communicate with and through more conventional means, and reports and letters to Welsh Ministers.

I too look forward to receiving that initial set of ideas from the commission before the end of the year. And I intend to make whatever advice is given to me available for people in Newport and elsewhere to see as well, and then to invite them to comment on those ideas, to contribute any further ideas they have, and to make sure that the commission is, as it has wanted to be from the outset, a genuinely iterative body working alongside those people most directly affected by its work.