Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Housing and Local Government – in the Senedd at 2:37 pm on 10 March 2021.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 2:37, 10 March 2021

Thank you, Laura Jones. Again, the M4 relief road is primarily in the portfolio of my colleague Ken Skates, but again, we work across the Government on a number of issues. If there is a call for a local referendum, then we're certainly happy to work with Newport council to see how that might be accomplished. I'm all in favour of local people having a large say in what happens in their region or area.

You'll know that we've put a regional arrangement for a strategic planning process in place via our Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021, and that puts the corporate joint committees in place. The south-east corporate joint committee is actually much more advanced than anywhere else. They are very well advanced in looking at their strategic development plan. That strategic development plan will, of course, be considering arterial routes for traffic as well as everything else, alongside the commission put in place by the First Minister and my colleague Ken Skates in order to look at alternatives to building what would be a very ecologically damaging set of concrete across protected Gwent levels. These things are never straightforward, and there is a range of opinions on all sides. I'm very aware that some people in Newport want to build the M4, but I'm also very aware that a lot of people don't want to build the M4 and wish to protect the natural environment. That's why the commission was put in place. 

Anyway, there is now a mechanism for the strategic plan to come forward for the south-east region, and I'm sure that once that process is under way, there will be ample opportunity for people to make their feelings known around the strategic transport arrangements. The CJC will also be the body that has the power to put the strategic plan in place. That will be the regional transport plan, and, of course, that will have to interact well with the strategic planning arrangements for infrastructure. That, of course, is the reason that we put that into the local government and elections Act, in order to give that regional flavour. Because it's not just the people who live in Newport county, but all the people who live around it, and, indeed, further on in Wales, that are impacted by that, hence the need for the strategic approach to it.