Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:05 pm on 5 February 2020.
I think that is the most effective thing, but I think you often see idling engines for minutes and minutes and minutes, and turning them off would be a very good idea. But I applaud the fact that you've met with Public Health Wales, Hefin, and, obviously, that's been very informative from your contributions and thoughts on these matters.
But, yes, we also spoke earlier, didn't we, about electric cars, and certainly I've heard from public health experts that they are very welcome, as we've heard, but, yes, there still are issues with particulate matter and brakes and tyres. So, we need to get people out of their cars, even with electric cars or hydrogen cars coming into being in far greater numbers. So, we must address the public transport issues. We've got to make the metro much more appealing much more quickly. We've got to get bus deregulation delivering better planned bus services that help people make that modal shift.
And, of course, we have the active travel Act now in being in Wales for some four years and the action plan. Yet, we've still not seen the shift to cycling and walking for short everyday journeys that we need to see, even though local authorities have been working up some of their network plans, Welsh Government has made an additional £20 million per annum available and local authorities can knit active travel into their wider transport strategies in addition to that.
So, I really would like to see, I think, Welsh Government looking very carefully at how it can take an overview and work with local authorities in Wales more effectively on the active travel front. The funding is available, but it's not always being used to best effect. Some of the money is still being used more for leisure purposes, rather than active travel and purposeful journeys. I think Welsh Government, in making that funding available, also has a responsibility to work very closely with local authorities to ensure that that funding is delivering the modal shift that we need to see.