Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:39 pm on 10 December 2019.
I thank Hefin David for that, and I want to congratulate him for the campaign that he helped to lead in Caerphilly that has resulted in the restoration of the 25 bus service, connecting Caerphilly on an hourly basis with the University Hospital of Wales. It's not a surprise to learn of his effectiveness there, working with Wayne David. I see, Llywydd, this week that an independent assessment of the availability of public representatives to their local communities right across the United Kingdom put Wayne David at the very top of that list—the Member of Parliament that provided the most available and accessible service to his constituents. Six Labour MPs from Wales in the top 20 across the United Kingdom—no surprise there either. And it's no wonder to me that the Member here, working with Wayne David, has had the success that he has had. He, I know, will want to congratulate Stagecoach as well on the recent award of funding that it has had for 16 electric buses, and those will all be stationed at their Caerphilly depot.
Our plans for the future, Llywydd, recognise the change in the way that bus travel will be organised in the future. Bus travel, we believe, will become a demand-responsive service in many parts of Wales. Pembrokeshire have already begun their pilot service from September of this year. We will have our first urban responsive transport pilot in Blaenau Gwent, beginning in the middle of 2020. That's all funded from the Welsh Government's £24 million local transport fund, and we will bring forward a bus Bill to the floor of this Assembly during the remainder of this Assembly term. It will provide local authorities and Transport for Wales with powers to intervene in the provision of local bus services, reversing the negative impacts of Tory deregulation and allowing our public authorities to make sure that the very significant public investment that is made in bus services in Wales is used to make sure that those bus services are provided in the public interest.