Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 1:30 pm on 11 December 2019.
Well, I hope you sounded some very, very loud alarm bells in that meeting with the Minister. As the question says, I know the development framework isn't in your brief, but I would advise you to be very careful in pressing for answers about what on earth the framework means for your area—or one of your areas—of responsibility: energy. If we look at the wider NDF, where do I start? No reference to Holyhead in there; it doesn't seem to be fitting in with the principles of spreading wealth; there's no vision there on the Welsh language; no real talk about regional hubs. Senior officers—the most senior officers—in north Wales knew nothing about what was going to be in this national development framework, I understand, until it was published. There's no reference to the third bridge on the Menai straits—it goes on and on.
Now, I understand that a committee in this Assembly is likely to propose moving away from the spatial model when it comes to energy generation in future. Certainly the spatial approach, as it applies to Anglesey, with 250m turbines—higher than the highest bit of land anywhere on Anglesey—is just ridiculous. So, I would call on you to reject what is being proposed in terms of energy generation. And would you share with me my fear that, when it comes to energy, the national development framework, as in so many other areas, is, in the words of officials that I have heard, like a very bad GCSE project?