Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:14 pm on 20 October 2020.
Well, in that spirit, Mr Melding, I shall put my pipe away; we'll have no more fireside chats here.
Just to answer the nub of Dawn Bowden's point—. I must pay tribute to her for the work she has done as a member of the Valleys taskforce, chairing the transport sub-group of the taskforce, in helping us to develop the demand-responsive model, and the challenge that she has brought to the Government in that role has been instrumental in allowing us to bring that forward. But she is right that the current system has been dysfunctional. It requires a significant amount of public investment without the full return on investment that we'd expect for our public values and for serving our communities, and that's why we're determined to bring about change. As I say, our first route has been denied to us, but there are other ways around it. And I think the option, if that doesn't work, of a greater role for Transport for Wales as a direct provider of buses, as an embryonic national bus company for Wales, certainly is there. But we'll try the partnership route first and see where that gets us.