3. Statement by the Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales: Burns Recommendations — Next Steps

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:42 pm on 8 December 2020.

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Photo of John Griffiths John Griffiths Labour 3:42, 8 December 2020

I very much welcome your statement today, Minister, and the work of the commission for this integrated, accessible and sustainable transport system for Newport and around. It's been long awaited and we must now make it a reality. The delivery unit is vital to this, Minister, and it's good to hear that it will be meeting this month. I wonder if you can tell us whether that delivery unit will have a dedicated budget, whether it will be headed up by a named individual and whether it will have a remit set out in more detail than you've mentioned today. 

In terms of buses, as you say, they must be a very important part of what we need to see happening in Newport, and any early wins around dedicated bus routes, bus corridors, would be very important. Would it be possible perhaps to have a free bus travel pilot, which would help with that accessibility and get more use of buses off to a very good start? 

I heard what you said about Magor. It's very encouraging, Minister, particularly involving the group in designing what happens. You will know that they're quite some way down the road with UK Government in terms of the new stations fund, and I hear what you said or what's in the statement about St Mellons and Llanwern being at planning stages. Quite a lot has already happened in terms of going through the UK Government's stages with Magor, so I wonder if you could add that to the other two in terms of early developments that we might see.

In terms of active travel, the statement says that there's more to do in Newport, which is certainly the case. I wonder, again, if you could say a bit more about how we could have some early wins in terms of active travel. It's such an important and exciting part of the overall agenda, which hits so many of, I think, Welsh Government's priorities in terms of health and fitness, as well as the transport and environmental advantages.

Finally, in terms of Ebbw Vale, I'll just add my voice to Jayne Bryant's. We've waited so long to see progress on that Ebbw Vale line, and people are very, very impatient and it would be a huge act of good faith if there could be any speeding up of the establishment of that passenger line.