4. Statement by the Deputy Minister for Economy and Transport: Llwybr Newydd — A New Wales Transport Strategy

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:49 pm on 17 November 2020.

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Photo of Lee Waters Lee Waters Labour 4:49, 17 November 2020

Thank you to Dawn for her question, and I must pay tribute to her as a member of the Valleys taskforce and the chair of the transport subgroup that's been leading the work on the Fflecsi demand-responsive scheme. And as I say, we are trialling it in four or five different areas at the moment and the results are very encouraging. And particularly in Newport, we think there is an early opportunity to try and ramp that up at scale to try and learn lessons to see whether or not it lives up to its early potential. So, certainly, it is our intent, as part of this strategy, Dawn, that schemes like the Fflecsi bus offer a real alternative to car use for everyday journeys in rural and urban areas. It's, as the title suggests, flexy.

She's entirely right, of course, that we're putting significant investment into the Heads of the Valleys road, and one of the things we now need to make sure is that we maximise the return on investment for that and we use it as a lever for economic development across the Heads of the Valleys, and that's something the Valleys taskforce is continuing to look at.